Blog # 370 Early Osprey Sightings



A nearly 3-year-old immature eagle masquerading as an Osprey, courtesy of Elaina M. McCartney.


“A bird of prey on an Osprey Platform is not necessarily an Osprey,” cautions Cayuga Bird Club’s Dave Nutter, especially when it is at the end of winter. Our brains are quick to make such assumptions, but a closer look rarely confirms this identification. Hawks, bald eagles, crows, gulls, and even Canada geese squat in empty Osprey nests in late winter trying them out before it is time to get serious about breeding. More often than not, early reports of Ospreys in the Cayuga Lake Basin turn out to be 3-year-old immature bald eagles.

During their first four years, mottled young eagles barely resemble the well-groomed adults—handsome, ebony-plumed birds with gleaming white heads and tails. The blotchy patterns on juvenile eagles change as they mature with more white added around the head as they age. In its first year, the predominantly dark-colored juvenile can often be mistaken for a young golden eagle. As they mature from 1.5 to 4.5 years old, they develop irregular patches of dark and light with such randomness that same-aged birds can look completely different.


There’s a window of time between 2.5- to 3-years old when a dappled sub-adult eagle’s head and

tail begin to turn white with brown flecking. Their whitening heads accentuate the underlying dark bands running through and behind their eyes, similar to the bandit masks of adult Ospreys. Catching the light


3 years old sub-adult bald eagle, courtesy of Pinterest.


At 2.5–3 years old, the sub-adult bald eagle’s head can resemble an Osprey.

just right, sub-adult breasts can also appear paler than the rest of the bird, again reminiscent of Ospreys. This is the time when bald eagles and Osprey are most likely confused.


Comparing the eagle pictures above and the Osprey photograph below, a perched adult Osprey looks very different than an adult bald eagle. Ospreys are predominantly white birds with dark-brown wings and a dark bandit mask on its face compared to the darker eagle.


Ospreys in Florida right before their northern migration, courtesy of Susan F. Ruoff.


Tracking the arrival dates of birds breeding in the Cayuga Basin helps us with species identification and aids in elucidating changes in bird behavior. Ospreys arriving a week or more before their traditional dates can be out of synchrony with the environment and may face serious survival challenges. It is still too early for Cayuga Lake to turn over, and most of its fish are swimming too deep for Ospreys to catch. The wintry weather on the lake makes catching fish on the surface difficult, and the creeks are either covered with ice jams or flooding with large sediment and salt loads—terrible fishing conditions all around. If these early sightings are Ospreys, they are probably migrating to the northeast coastline where they can fish in the ocean.


Eyes to the sky! Candace


Candace E. Cornell Friends of Salt Point Lansing, NY

Cayuga Lake Osprey Network cec222@gmail.com

EYES TO THE SKY!


READ!

On Osprey Time: Ospreys of Salt Point


VISIT!

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail


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