On Osprey Time

  Ospreys dry themselves after a dip by doing a “doggie shake.”   Ursula and the fledglings, freed from the bonds of their nest, know how to cope with blistering hot summer days—they bath in the lake or stream—and today was no exception. Ursula flew out to the offshore snag where the gulls tend to sit and delighted in the refreshing water. A fledgling flying low after bathing, courtesy of Cynthia Sedlacek . in the refreshing water. Standing in the shallow water, Ursula would dip her head followed by her whole body letting the coolness wash over her. For at least five minutes she repeated her ablutions. When satisfied, she gave a healthy doggie shake and flew to Salt Point. Makani was in the nest begging for food as Ursula flew over and lighted in a cottonwood nearby. Orpheus, sitting on the power pole at the entrance to Salt Point, must have heard Makani’s pleas and headed off to fish. Lani flew around the North shore and spooked Moana who was sleeping in a tree. Moana chased ...

Garbage along a flooded stream, courtesy of Dreamtime. I thrive at this time of year when the fledglings fill the skies, and everywhere you look there’s an Osprey fishing. But not all the chicks survive to fledge; many die due to strangulation, choking, and smothering accidents from plastic in the nest. While many nests in the Cayuga Lake Basin are surprisingly free of anthropogenic trash , plastic twine, fishing line, and plastic bags can be seen hanging from the occasional nest. Ospreys are notorious pack rats, adding items they find along the beach to their nests, perhaps for insulation. The list of debris they incorporate into their nests is truly extraordinary. This is the story of two eggs that hatched in Florida in February. It is a cautionary tale as the same thing is happening in nests across North America. There is an Osprey couple that has nested for over ten years at the Pink Shell Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach with a nest camera streaming live online. Two eggs hatched, ...

Human divorces are much more complicated than avian divorces, courtesy of Flicker . Many social behaviors of birds and humans are similar because of biparental care. One of the shared behaviors is divorce. Instead of the bewildering upheaval of emotions and financial settlements that drive human divorces, avian divorces are biological. In avian divorce, birds switch partners within the population: ornithologists use this term as a metric of mate fidelity. To appreciate avian divorce, one must understand their reproductive behaviors and their urge to maximize their lifetime reproductive success —the total number of offspring that fledge over a lifetime.   The maxim, “male birds attract, females choose”, is true in the case of avian divorce. The decision to end the pair bond, whether it is a North American or European variant, is typically the female’s choice rather than an unintended consequence such as death or separation during migration. In the case of Ospreys, if a male par...