It was well over 50 years ago that the sad story of Osprey numbers along the south shore of Buzzards Bay was almost completely depleted due to the wide spraying of DDT poisoning the thickness of their egg’s shells, preventing them from hatching.
In the years from 1860 to 1979, the fledgling numbers were in a deep depression until the use of DDT was totally banned, quickly reversing the downward trend in the following years to a positive number of nests to 300 in the same coastal area.
As in my illustration, the Ospreys’ recent spring arrival two weeks earlier than last year back to both wooden nesting towers directly behind my seaside home on Little Bay in Fairhaven might possibly be a cause and effect due to this global warming of climate change. A subsequent conclusion of a resulting increased reproduction opportunity might be the extra number of clutches this year compared to last season.
Any positive support going forward would have to be the Ospreys’ constant availability to harvest a steady diet of herring and menhaden, which would result in a positive, healthy physical appearance of brown-spangled wings as well as clearly active, ragged growths on and above their heads.
The total distance along the Atlantic flyway is at least 1,000 miles both ways, first passing the coastal Connecticut River Basin, then the Hudson River outlet, the Delaware flood plain and eventually the Shenandoah Valley.
As they experience each regional magnetic field both coming and returning, their instinct of direction and distance is implanted along their homing instinct to bring them home to their destination on time like the swallows of Capistrano in California of exactly the same time of day each year without fail.
The recent arrival of Ospreys here in Fairhaven is testimony that similar instincts brought them home several weeks ahead of time.
By George B. Emmons
