Here's my take on the US ospreys. Early MON. afternoon, I saw the probable
juvenile osprey on a utility pole east of where Kathy Strickland found the
dead bird on TUES a.m.. She notified me soon after she found it. Since then
I have several times seen the adults flying over, either going to or coming
from the lake. One juvenile has been staying on or near the nest. An adult
occasionally stands atop the "perch beam". When I came in tonight just
before dark, a juvenile was on the nest.
This a.m., (WED.) daughter Becky & I were up behind our house where we can
look across the field at the nest. We were watching Kathy & her group,
(unknown to them), as well as the soaring activity of the 5 ospreys & the
red-tail!! (Had she stayed a few more minutes she would also have seen a
magnificent male HARRIER sailing over the field between her & us. He
eventually caught something & settled in the grass to eat it.)
When Becky & I were watching the soaring, shrieking birds (she could hear
them, I couldn't) we found it hard to accept that we would be seeing 5
ospreys together. Now that Kathy has posted her sighting, we know we weren't
imagining it.
When we first saw a lone osprey, it was not far from the nest & appeared to
be heading to the lake. Suddenly it flew upward & then downward ... the
loop-dee-loop like a bird might do in a mating ritual. Just proior to that
activity, Becky had seen another bird fly into a pine tree below it. The
osprey proceeded to "dive bomb" the pine tree several times before beginning
to soar upwards to where the other ospreys & the hawk seemed to appear out
of nowhere to form into a "kettle" which rose higher & higher 'til we lost
sight of them in the sun.
I had come down to get the scope but the bird in the tree had gone ...
indeed we wondered if it had been the red-tail since it so suddenly joined
the ospreys.
Whatever ..... it was an interesting 10 -15 minutes or so. I agree with
Kathy that the juvenile probably was hit by a car. Sad ... but look at the
amazing numbers of ospreys she & the teens saw today.
My great treat ... holding 3 baby wrens!! My anger ... seeing the deer &
rabbit damage in my garden!!!
Fritzie
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On Wednesday July 25, 2012 5:15 PM Kathy Strickland wrote:
Yesterday morning I found a just-fledged Osprey roadkill on Spring St
about a quarter mile west of where I'd been watching ......... (she failed
to finish this before hitting "send".)
This morning about 930 there were 5 Ospreys circling high above the nest
site on Center/No.1 Rd, and a not-particularly-welcome Red-tailed Hawk. The
youngsters were characteristically shrieking as they soared. Made a brief
visit to Seneca Meadows WP with 5 teens and saw 9 nests and 25 Ospreys. Lots
of Bobolinks in varying plumages, and a young meadowlark just beginning to
show signs of its black chevron.
Sent from my iPhone
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