David, Thank you for your thoughts. See my comments below.
Karel From: Dave Nutter [mailto:nutter.d...@me.com] Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2015 10:31 AM To: Karel V. Sedlacek Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Olin the Osprey is back This nest platform is installed atop one of several poles for lights for McGovern Fields, replacing (literally) a nest which Ospreys built atop the same pole, right? McGovern Fields occupy the NE corner of the fields between East Hill Plaza, Ellis Hollow Road, Game Farm Road and Cascadilla Creek with the east end of the East Ithaca Recreationway. KVS-The 2014 nest was atop the south center, double-side light pole at the McGovern Fields. This caused the lights to be turned off for the duration of the nesting season. Plans were made for a replacement location and through the efforts of a lot of folks a riser, built by the Musco Lighting Co was installed on the SW tower. In case other Ospreys start nesting near Game Farm Road, maybe refering to McGovern Fields would be better, at least until another of those light poles gets built upon! KVS-It is unlikely (that is the hope anyway) that another Osprey family will build on another of the poles at the fields-the outside poles are single-side, and the center double-sided poles now have bird-deterrents on them. In addition, Olin and Olive spent considerable energy last season dissuading other Ospreys from the area. Having said that, names are flexible and can be adjusted as needed. The Ithaca reservoir and Commonland are along Six-mile Creek south of NYS-79, which is in the next drainage behind Snyder Hill and perhaps difficult to see from McGovern Fields, so was that really where you meant the Osprey flew? KVS1-Yes. This was Olin's pattern of behavior last year when going to Common Lands: circle over the tree line to make a threat assessment near the nest, fly west down Cascadilla, to East Hill and linger to assess the area, then turn south and head towards Six-Mile Creek. Having chased him several times this is his typical pattern. When Olive is in the nest he can make the roundtrip with a fish in 12 mins. He sometimes does make the turn up Snyder Hill Rd. How do you ID the birds as individuals? Is it an assumption based on gender (general plumage and relative size) and presence or behavior at the site, or are there specific characteristics of individual birds that you use? KVS-Gender, based on plumage, Olin has no necklace, Olive has the lightest Necklace in the southern basin to-date. Olin has a distinctive set of markings on the top and back of the head. Absolutely behavior: Koi fish raided from Snyder Hill, NW tower, bite the fish, look both ways, drop part of fish, flying routes as described above. I recently saw an Osprey perched beside the platform at the NW corner of Newman Golf Course and wondered if that indicated it was being used. Moments later I saw an Osprey flying from that direction toward Union Fields, so now I wonder if it was one of the Union Fields pair just checking it out. I don't know how you keep track of individuals. Ospreys love to do things after a fashion-you do your best to learn them and id based on that. --Dave Nutter On Apr 09, 2015, at 07:24 AM, "Karel V. Sedlacek" <k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu>> wrote: First definite sigthing of Olin the Game Farm Osprey Nest male was 7:50 AM on the NW tower at GF. He was happily eating a Koi fish. 8:20 AM he flew to the new nest riser and flapped, poked around and sat for a few minutes. Then off down the tree line west and then south to the reservoir or Common Lands. Later, 12:45-1:10 Olin ate another fish and worked on the nest. Landed briefly on one of the double sided poles then went to the Nest. Mr Lefty, the RTHA was near by both times and appeared at ease. Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
