This afternoon I walked around Cass Park. I did not go to Allan H Treman State Marine Park, so I don’t know about the platform north of the Hangar Theatre, but I assume the nest in the field closer to the lake is still solidly occupied.
Today I believe I saw 5 Ospreys. My first view was a distant glimpse of an Osprey apparently chasing an immature Bald Eagle. I did not see how that ended, so I’m not counting it. I may have seen it again later on, anyway. For most of the time there was 1 Osprey on the nest atop the lights in Union Field. That’s #1. Meanwhile I heard a low-flying Osprey (call this #2) calling, and I saw it was carrying a small fish. And I noticed the local immature Bald Eagle was chasing the Osprey. They circled up into sky for several minutes. The Osprey stayed much higher than the Bald Eagle, and it got awkward to watch them because they weren’t even in the same scope view when I quit. I guess the Osprey got to keep the fish, but I don’t know how it got back down past the Bald Eagle. Shortly after this I saw another Osprey carrying a longer fish while kiting against the north wind over Newman Golf Course near the Inlet and calling constantly, clearly showing off. This seemed too soon to be #2 with a different fish, and it called more, so I’m calling it #3. I wondered who it was showing off to, anyone nearby or anyone in particular? Then I looked at the nearest nest platform at the NW corner of Newman Golf Course and there were already 2 Ospreys in that nest (#4 & #5). Did the show-off hope to gain a mate who already had a mate and a nest? As I walked south I checked the Union Fields nest and it still was occupied, although I think an Osprey I saw flying shortly thereafter may have come from that nest which was newly empty. It’s hard to keep track of all the Osprey goings-on, but that’s my interpretation. - - Dave Nutter -- 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/ --
