On Osprey Time

Plastic pollution in lakes and rivers, courtesy of Getty Images.  New Year’s Resolutions like giving up sweets or losing weight typically falter by the  end of January. But a New Year’s resolution to help the Earth can be kept and not  forgotten. Resolving to reduce your plastic footprint seems easy: just stop using plastic. Keep it out of your life, out of our lake! Divorcing yourself from plastic can be challenging, however, because plastic is so ingrained in our lives. Where do begin? Anywhere! Don’t get overwhelmed by all the possibilities of what you could do, and just pick one area of your life and start there, one small step at a time. Once mastered, move on.  Volunteer picking up garbage along the Salt Point shoreline in Lansing to keep it from entering the lake. The #1 reason that New Year’s Resolutions fail is that people set goals that are too  lofty. Break them down into smaller, more manageable steps. You don’t have to be  plastic-free by the e...

Osprey diving, compilation courtesy of bored panda [not original author].  Why Nest Around Cayuga?  The rapid Osprey population expansion in the Greater Cayuga Lake Basin is probably  driven by three factors: ample fish, accessible fisheries, and abundant safe nesting  substrates surrounding the lake and refuge. Cayuga Lake has over 110 species of fish  and is stocked annually with high-protein sportfish like lake trout, brown trout, rainbow   trout,   Osprey plunging into the water to catch a fish, courtesy of vit.org.  Fully submerged Osprey rising with fish in talons, courtesy of YouTube. Ospreys can dive to 3 feet deep.   and Atlantic salmon. The lake offers Osprey favorites such as largemouth and  smallmouth bass, brown bullheads, yellow perch , white suckers, carp, and various  sunfish. However, what good is having ample fish if you can’t catch them?  When fishing, Ospreys have a success rate 70 percent, courtesy of Stev...

Juvenile Osprey washing its feet by Kristopher Rowe.  For the first time in nearly two hundred years, if ever, Ospreys ( Pandion haliaetus  caronlinensis ) are colonizing the Finger Lakes with the Cayuga Lake Basin at its core.  Why did they chose Cayuga Lake as their stronghold? To understand we have to look  at the history of Ospreys in New York and examine what attracts them to Cayuga’s  waters.   Ospreys are predominately coastline dwellers and may not have bred this far inland  prior to European colonization and clearing of eastern forests. During the 18–19th  century, Ospreys were plentiful in New York City and on Long Island. According to  zoologist James E. DeKay’s 1844 NYS Bird survey, the Osprey “occurs in every part of  the State and breeds in the vicinity of fresh or salt water.” However, he was referring to  only about 30 birds—95% of the New York population bred around Long Island—and  may have been included ...