Blog #405 The Fish That Got Away



Orpheus in his favorite cottonwood tree.


Orpheus is an excellent provider. Granted it is a very hot, humid, and lazy summer day, but he turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of his begging Ursula and her brood. They have been asking for a meal 


Ursula, Lani, Makani, and Moana waiting for fish.

for over an hour (2 PM), and things were getting entirely out of hand (OK, talon). Orpheus was just sitting in the nearby cottonwood dozing off. After having sat in the full sun all day, the birds were thirsty. Fledges get all their water from the fish they eat, making eating essential to ward off dehydration. By 4:20 PM, Ursula had had enough of Orpheus’ case of selective hearing. She flew off the nest crying, flying past Orpheus to wake him. Ignoring a begging wife and offspring is a fast track to divorce in the Osprey world (see forthcoming Blog #407.) 


A minute or so later she returned with a stick for the nest, again flying past Orpheus, but it did not shake Orpheus out of his stupor. It was time to take control. Ursula flew out over the lake and started fishing, something she had not done since March. Just before the chicks are ready to fledge at age 40-55 days, they lose weight as the adult males decrease their fish deliveries to the nest. This decrease is temporary as the deliveries increase again after they fledge. Perhaps this is the parents’ way of encouraging their offspring to fly and seek independence. But this had been a long 90ยบ day in the sun, and fish were a necessity. 


Ursula brought a juicy catfish for her young.


Makani, Moana, and Lani waiting and flapping until their parents return.

Orpheus must have had his epiphany as he abruptly left his tree and flew west over the lake. With their mother gone, Makani and Lani flapped away, excited about the possibility of a meal. Soon Ursula 


Orpheus returns to the nest with a brown bullhead, courtesy of Karel and Cindy Sedlacek.


returned to the nest with a treat for the thirsty bunch—a juicy, 9-inch brown bullhead. Just as the catfish was being doled out, Orpheus returned to the nest carrying another catfish and the chicks began eating that independently of Ursula. A tug-of-war for the Orpheus’ fish took Makani and Moana across and around the nest, causing a commotion with all their flapping wings. Just as Ursula escaped the tug-of-war match to eat her fish, Moana lunged for it. The bullhead still had a lot of life it in and was flip-flopping about the nest. Either self-propelled or aided by a nudge from Moana, the bullhead flipped itself out of the

nest, falling 55 feet to the ground. Over the years, the occasional fledgling has let spirited fish leap



Ursula feeding the kids her brown bullhead.


overboard. Dropping a hard-earned fish is always a frustration, as the Ospreys do not retrieve them. Needless to say, it does not go to waste with Salt Point’s foxes prowling the point.


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!


WATCH!

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam


READ!

On Osprey Time: Ospreys of the Finger Lakes


VISIT!

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail




HELP PROTECT OSPREYS


  • Avoid getting too close to nesting sites during the breeding season. If an animal vocalizes when you're near, you are too close! Back off Immediately.

  • Carry binoculars to view wildlife from afar.

  • Restore, clean, and preserve lakeshore and wetland habitats.

  • Recycle used fishing lines, which can be hazardous to Osprey.

  • Join the Cayuga Osprey Network and volunteer to help monitor

Osprey nests. Write to: cec222@gmail.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #481 Sunshine at Last!

Image
  Last week’s 2 week old chicks. Now they look completely different, courtesy of Facebook. Meteorologists report this is the 6 th  day of sun in all of May with more rain in the forecast. This is good for the plants but potentially damaging to the Ospreys. Foul weather rots eggs and makes hunting difficult to impossible at a time when the hatchlings are most vulnerable to the starvation, cold, and predation. Despite the challenges of fishing in windy, rainy conditions, Orpheus succeeded in keeping the family fed by catching small, nearshore fish and making up for deficiencies with large trout whenever there was a break in the weather. A foggy morning feeding the 2 ½ week-old chicks, Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. The 3 week-old chicks in their reptilian phase, courtesy of YouTube. Oakley, the eldest chick, just turned two-weeks old and is passing into the Reptilian Phase,  where the now darker, scaly chicks. In this transitional phase Oakley’s buff down is quickly replaced w...
Read more

Blog #482 Where Ospreys are Starving

Image
Male Osprey landing a beauty, enough to feed the entire family trout, courtesy of Patrick Marshall. Ospreys of the Cayuga Lake Osprey colony, live in the stunning heart of New York’s Finger Lakes of a terrific about centered on Cayuga Lake may lull us into complacent thinking that all is well in their world. Life for Ospreys near Cayuga is certainly good for our in this inland colony with lots to eat and seeming endless nesting possibilities, but an ecological tragedy is in the making not far away. Osprey chicks are starving and whole colonies collapsing in the Chesapeake Bay region, home of the world’s highest concentration of breeding Ospreys (until recently estimated at 10,000 breeding pairs). The tragedy is caused by a sharp decline of their dietary staple, menhaden, called “the most important fish in the sea” by author H. Bruce Franklin. Ospreys, striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, whales, and a myriad of other coastal and marine species dependent on menhaden for food are all declin...
Read more

Blog #461 Sneak Peek at Osprey Season 2024

Image
  Orpheus (L) and Ursula at their Salt Point Nest March 26, courtesy of Cindy Sedlacek. The following is a sneak peek at what this Osprey summer will entail. Our northeastern Ospreys return to their breeding habitats just after the early spring thaw. This year’s first Osprey was seen in Cayuga Lake Basin on March 15, an early date many attribute to  the mild winter. Most nest occupants will have returned to their nests and reunited with their mates by this weekend. These returning Ospreys have just completed their 2,000–4,000-mile migrations from their wintering areas along the coasts of South America and in the wild Amazonian tropics. The range of landscapes that a cosmopolitan Osprey can experience in its lifetime is staggering. In general, the older breeding males arrive on their nests followed by their mates in a few days. After that first wave of older Ospreys arrive, unmated adults and second-year birds migrating north for the first time after spending two years in the S...
Read more