On Osprey Time

Cayuga Lake, looking at Taughannock point, courtesy of Jeff Katris.  We take our safe drinking water from Cayuga Lake and its watershed for granted, without considering the micro-doses of chemical compounds we are ingesting. But the ongoing lead-tainted waters of Michigan remind us that safe, potable tap water is not a  given in the U.S. or anywhere. A 2021 study from the Environmental Working Group, a  nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., reveals a wider spread  problem than assumed: the drinking water of a majority of Americans is likely tainted by  “forever chemicals” —chemicals that take hundreds to thousands of years to break  down. Forever chemicals also persist in the human body, potentially causing certain   cancers, weakened immunity, thyroid disease, and other health problems.  Scientists call perfluoroalkyls and polyfluoroalkyls (PFAS) “forever chemicals” because  their chemistry keeps them from breaking down ...

Lilibit flying over Salt Point before migration, courtesy of Karel and Cindy Sedlacek.  The graduating class of 2021 Cayuga Lake Ospreys have winged their way to the Caribbean and South America and are looking for places to live on the coast or along a tropical river.  Before migration, the young Ospreys were in the constant company of their siblings eating,  sleeping, and playing together as a family. But for the last six weeks, each juvenile has been on a solitary quest southward to a place it has never been, unaided by including parents,  siblings, friends, or a map humans can detect.   Migration is one of nature’s great mysteries. While theories abound, no one knows how  juvenile Ospreys know where to go. Instinct must play a major role, acting like a sixth  sense compelling an inexperienced bird to move southward, but other inexplicable  forces are at play.  Tracking Ospreys wearing miniature satellite transmitters, researchers have...

Migrating adult male Osprey at Hawk Mountain, courtesy of Bill Moses.  Earlier in 2021, millions of Americans who appreciate birds in their yards and parks  were aghast when news reports announced that about 3 billion birds had been lost over  the decade. However, these studies largely overlooked raptors. What is happening to  their populations?  Although Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons have recovered from near-extinction  during the DDT era of the 1960-1970s, the status of Ospreys and other raptors have not  been well documented, primarily owing to financial constraints. Annual surveys of  breeding bird conducted across the country collect vital data on many bird species, but  most do not sample raptors sufficiently to ascertain population trends.  Recent analyses by the Raptor Population Index Project (RPI), a partnership of Hawk  Mountain Sanctuary, Birds Canada, Hawk Migration Association of North America  (HMANA), and Ha...