IMPORTANT: Messages from osprey experts

Squirmy stops and goes…………..

She was back again at about 9:02 hrs …

She is 10 weeks old today!!

Seagull asking Mamma Dee for a handout

to get seaweed for the nest …

after positioning it in one spot — just look at the wrong picture I put in “to get seaweed for the nest …” LOL

then he stood, silently — and headless!! — looking around at the world …

he surprised the heck out of me when he came zipping by in the opposite direction from the direction he was headed when he took off!!

June c: Last seen 👀 at nest: 09/04/2018 at 06:07:16 hrs

Here’s a tidbit I found this evening:

“There’s no real way to tell exactly where an osprey winters except for satellite tracking devices, although studies have put together regional pattern (sic) for the raptors that live on six of the seven continents.

The osprey that nest in the western United States overwinter from southern Texas through Mexico and into southern Central America, however, rarely in South America.
Osprey from eastern U.S. breeding sites overwinter in small numbers in the Caribbean and mostly in South America.

An osprey takse (sic) 15-50 days to complete its migration, and it may log more than 160,000 migration miles in its 15- to 20-year lifetime, which could boil down to 8,000 miles per year or 4,000 miles for a one-way trip. A straight line from Okoboji to central Brazil is approximately 4,800 miles, so most likely our osprey are somewhere in the northern half of South America.”
(http://dickinsoncountyconservationboard.com/2017/10/03/osprey-fly-south-in-the-winter-to-whereabouts-unknown/)

Wow, that’s a LOT of mileage on those beautiful wings!! (Average wingspan is 5 to 6 feet [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/o/osprey/ and https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Birds/Osprey%5D)

Another tidbit:
Flight speeds measured by radar in Europe: Average flap-gliding speeds (13.7 m/s) and gliding speeds (12.5 m/s) are realistic values for migration (45–50 km/h; Bruderer and Boldt 2001). Migrating birds equipped with GPS units typically fly between 6.7 and 12.5 m/s (24.1 to 45 km/h) (ROB). One adult migrating south with strong tailwinds reached 22.4 m/s (80 km/h; OspreyTrax-Belle). (https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/osprey/behavior)

If 1 km/hr = 0.621371 mph, then 80 km/hr = 49.7097 mph. Imagine flying at close to 50 mph on your own wing power!!

PS – OspreyTrax is Dr. Rob Bierregaard’s website

she hopped down from the perch within a couple of seconds of his landing and, in a chaotic mess of feathers, turned to George …

After standing on the nest for a couple of minutes, with George alternately surveying the nest and surrounding area and cleaning his beak and with the chick on the right edge, heard but only partially seen,

..

and then he took off …

Looks like I was so done, I didn’t finish the word! teehee

Squirmy going for fish was facing wrong way when the wind gust found her! Bottoms up!

Nice catch! honk-honk

Migration Information:

“Migrations:
There are two distinct populations of osprey with respect to lifestyle, the Residents and the Migrants. Residents are the ones, which breed in the subtropical latitudes in winter; they either stay in the same area all year round or move only locally during the non-breeding season. The other ones are the Migrants, which nest in the temperate latitudes and fly off each autumn to spend the winter in the tropical regions.

North American ospreys start migrating south to their wintering grounds in Central America and in the northern parts of South America, around mid-August. By early September, most nesting colonies in the northern latitudes are empty. The numbers of migrating ospreys observed at selected watch points along their southward route are at their greatest during mid-September and early October.

They reach their wintering grounds by late November. During winter, the only thing an osprey does is to eat, rest, recover from the stress of the previous breeding season and prepare for the next breeding season. It has been observed that during winter, they become more tolerant of each other as they congregate in loose flocks and are even known to hunt together in small groups, a few birds hovering over water, looking for fish might also stimulate others to join in the frenzy.

Adult ospreys start leaving their wintering grounds in early March, by late March, more than half of the wintering ospreys have left the wintering areas, for their natal nesting grounds.
Yearling ospreys stay on their wintering grounds for another eighteen months, returning to their natal nesting grounds at the age of about two years.

Two-year-old ospreys however, leave the wintering grounds much later than the adults, and may reach their natal nesting grounds as late as June, by then; they are already too late to breed. However, pre-adult ospreys may become a nuisance to the breeders, because they try to take over nest sites and may interfere with the breeding pairs, as they explore and search for nesting sites of their own. They are also sometimes known to replace a partner in a breeding pair if it dies or is incapable of performing its duties.

Ospreys arrive back at their natal nesting grounds by early May.” (http://www.glenlakesfoleyal.com/html/osprey_information.html)

“Individuals typically migrate singly, except at concentration points. Kerlinger and Moore 1989 reported that 80% of Ospreys sighted during fall over New York State were alone, 11% seen with other raptors (primarily Broad-winged Hawks [Buteo platypterus]), with maximum flock size 2 individuals. A flock of 11 was reported at Cape May, New Jersey (Dunne et al. 1988). Larger flocks (up to 92 individuals) have been reported in Cuba (Rodríguez-Santana et al. 2014) and Haiti (Crouse and Keith 1999) where the broad-front migration from eastern and (partly) central North America is concentrated as it passes through the Caribbean.
Satellite telemetry data show: (1) male-female differences in timing of migration (females leave up to a month before males), distance traveled, and overwintering locations; (2) individuals followed for over 1 yr by satellite telemetry showed unwavering fidelity to overwintering sites and a general fidelity to migration flyways, but not to specific routes; (3) breeding pairs did not migrate or overwinter together (Martell et al. 2001a, Martell et al. 2014); and (4) adults do not migrate with their offspring (MSM).
(https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/osprey/distribution)

“Migration FAQ
1. Do Osprey pairs migrate and winter together?
Ospreys mate for life, as far as we know, but part ways each year for the fall migration. They migrate as individuals, not in groups or flocks. Usually, females leave the nesting area first, followed by the males. Mates do not see each other again until they return to their nest in spring. It would be a very rare coincidence if a pair ended up in the same wintering place.

2. Do the young migrate and winter together with parents or each other?
The young are left behind when parents migrate. A few days to several weeks later, the young take off, too. Each one finds its own route south and winters in a different place, just as the adults do.

3. When do the young migrate back north? Do they return to the place of their birth nest?
The young remain in the vicinity of the winter home and generally do not migrate north their first spring. Rather, they remain near their wintering area for another year until they are almost two years old. If young survive to the spring of their second year, they head north, but they do not necessarily return to the place of their birth nest. In fact, they may return to anywhere within a hundred miles of it. Chances are they will never see their parents, or each other, again.

4. How do Ospreys know when to start their migrations?
This question is hard to answer. Many birds respond to changing day length that at some point triggers migratory preparation, such as adding body fat to fuel the long trip. Then, environmental conditions such as wind direction and speed, atmospheric pressure, temperature or some unknown input or combination click in the birds brain, turning it from a lethargic resident into a migrating machine. Quite literally, a bird will be perched resting one moment and the next will be off like a shot out of a canon. The perplexing thing about the influence of day length on birds that winter in the tropics is that the length of daylight does not change much in that region. So there are likely many factors detected by the birds that prepare them for migration and then send them off at almost the same time each year.

5. Do Ospreys follow the same route north that they took south?
The return migration is almost always the mirror image of the fall migration. A bird that we have tracked on Nantucket, Señor Bones, migrated south in the fall and north in the spring in 2011 and in 2012 along almost exactly the same path. Minor variations occurred when he was flying over the Caribbean and over the Straits of Florida between Cuba and Florida; these variations were caused by drift with the prevailing winds at the time of the different flights.

6. How do Ospreys know where to go that is, how do they navigate to find their way back to their nests in the spring?
Ospreys use many methods to navigate. Since they do not migrate as a group, but as individuals, they cannot learn from each other. Some studies have shown that birds migrate using celestial cues, such as star patterns, or the position of the sun through the day and at the time of year. Others have shown that the earths magnetic forces aid them in migration. Some learning goes on through trial and error. Once a bird navigates successfully, it almost appears as if it has its own GPS navigational system to guide it next time around. The long and short of it is that we do not know for sure how they do it, but we do know that whatever methods they use, they can travel with remarkable accuracy from place to place.

7. Do Ospreys eat during their migrations or do they rely on fat stores to fuel them?
Ospreys fish along the way to keep up their strength. It appears that most fishing takes place early in the morning before they start the days flight, or during rest stops lasting a day or so along the way. This varies depending upon the distance traveled, the success of earlier fishing attempts, etc. Ospreys do not appear to fish when they travel out across large bodies of water such as the Straits of Florida or the Caribbean Sea.

8. What are the greatest dangers to Ospreys during migration?
One major danger is weather, especially when crossing large bodies of water. For instance, Ospreys crossing the Caribbean or the Straits of Florida can be blown off course if they fly into a strong headwind or get caught in a severe thunderstorm. Anything that slows their flight and increases the time it takes them to make the crossing could drain strength or fat reserves (their fuel) and put them at risk. Worst case, they may have to ditch into the water, or if they do make it to land somewhere, they may be too exhausted to fish to regain their strength. Another major danger is being shot by humans. This could happen anywhere. However, birds migrating in this part of the world are particularly vulnerable when they fish in private and commercial fish farms/ponds in the Dominican Republic, Haiti or Cuba. Many of the farms are owned by local people living at or near subsistence level, who do not take kindly to anyone or anything that steals their fish.

9. What happens when one mate migrates back to the nest before the other?
The longer the time interval between mates arrival at the breeding site, the more likely it is that the first to arrive will attract or be attracted to a new mate. Yes, Ospreys do mate for life as far as we know, but that bond needs to be reinforced each spring by the arrival of the second mate. If too much time elapses, a bird will accept another mate since the instinct to breed is far greater – and more important – than the instinct to wait for a mate that may have perished over the winter.

10. What happens if an Osprey returns to find his or her partner with a new mate?
In most cases, the late returning bird will drive off the new bird as the bond between the old mates will be stronger than the newly formed bond between the old and new mates, especially if the new mate is a young bird. We often see three Ospreys on a nest and conflicts between two of them early in the nesting season. These conflicts are usually short in duration and no one gets hurt in the process. However, once I found an adult Osprey dead in the nest while two adults went about their business of egg laying and rearing young. I do not know if the dead bird was a former mate or an intruder.”
(http://www.jamaicabayosprey.org/faq-about-ospreys)

So, now y’all have everything you need to know!!

Never meant to “Complain” about the pictures. Just meant sometimes there are a lot to scroll through to find out what is going on. That is just me. You devote a lot of time to the nest and that is great. And, look how much information i got from your one post. Thank you. That is what “I” needed to know. And, relearn.