While not an Osprey, I watched the Bald Eagles at Mud Lock do the same thing to gather sticks. I never saw them not succeed at taking a stick off a tree so I have no idea what would happen if it couldn't break it off. It's really cool to watch them, isn't it?
Sent from my iPad On Apr 24, 2013, at 7:47 PM, John Greenly <[email protected]> wrote: > I watched the Salt Point Ospreys for an hour this evening. During heavy rain > one landed repeatedly in the lake, apparently combining a shower from above > with a bath. The female perched on the box for long periods and the male > approached several times, apparently with mating in mind, but the female > always took off just as he got to hovering a foot or two above her. For the > last half hour the female stayed perched while the male brought sticks to the > box. This was rather spectacular: his collection method was to fly past a > tree, grab the end of a branch in his talons as he went by, and try to break > it off in flight. He succeeded five or six times, and deposited the > broken-off pieces, a foot or two long, in the nest. He failed more times > than he succeeded, including once when he got flipped upside down and > backwards by a hefty branch that didn't break and snapped back before he > could let go. Interesting flying, to say the least. The female sat and > watched the whole show, not noticeably impressed. I assume this is must be > the standard method of getting nice clean fresh sticks, but I didn't know > about it and was amazed. > > --John Greenly > -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
