Look up in the sky, it’s the hawk that fishes! One can almost hear the opening bars of Superman, the television series, as we gaze up into the sky and watch our local osprey as they glide above, searching for food.
The handle “the hawk that fishes” is extremely apropos according to osprey expert Dr. Alan Poole. He has been an associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and editor of Birds of North America for over two decades. Poole is also an author of two books (one for children) with osprey as the theme. Poole gave an in-depth presentation at the Marion Natural History Museum on August 16.
Poole is widely known for his conservation work on behalf of these majestic birds for the last 35 years. They are survivors of the first order, Poole said, going from the brink of population collapse to a return with global expansion. Although he stated that there has been a 30% decline in population overall from the 1950s, today they are doing well globally.
Poole asked the audience to consider the osprey a master fisherman, with long hook-like talons and eyesight designed to see fish just below the water’s surface. It is totally dependent on fish as a food source and water supply, he noted. Osprey can consume both salt and freshwater fish; thus, their nesting sites can be found in pond and lake areas as well as saltwater marshes.
And what about those nests. Poole said that many hundreds of individual sticks comprise nests that are improved and repaired season after season, primarily by the males. Nests can be found atop electric utility poles or nestled on maritime channel markers.
People have helped osprey with their homesteading activities, he said, by building platforms above hunting areas. Locally, these nests can be found in marshlands or along cranberry bogs. Wherever water supports fish, colonies of osprey may be found. Wiley estimated that there are now 100 nests along the Westport River.
On the issue of survival, this bird gets top ratings. When DDT was introduced after World War II as an agent to control insect predation, birds of all types would be horrendously impacted. Beyond killing off adult birds, DDT damaged shells, rendering them unviable. Bird numbers fell dramatically.
Poole reminded us that author Rachel Carson’s pivotal book “Silent Spring” sounded the alarm bell regarding the use of pesticides, and slowly DDT spraying was stopped. Along with our national icon, the bald eagle and many others, osprey have been able to reestablish their numbers in the wild.
The osprey in this area make “an epic” migration each year, traveling from the northeast U.S. to east central South America. They can clock in as many as 160,000 miles in a lifetime, it is estimated. They arrive here in the spring for mating and nesting and depart in September for their winter-season feeding areas with mated pairs returning to the same nest year after year.
Poole said that mated pairs do not travel together on the great migrations, nor do they meet up during the winter. “They take separate vacations.” European osprey migrate to western Africa, even crossing the Sahara Desert. Migration routes vary, but the average trip is approximately three weeks.
Family units are generally two to three eggs and the mated pair. Mother osprey do not leave the nest to feed while the young are maturing. This results in females sustaining loss of body fat, strength and stamina, Poole explained. But evolution helps these ladies out by providing a supportive male partner.
The females leave the nest before the young take flight, thusly the male takes over hunting and feeding chores. The females in the meantime are plumping up on fish in preparation for that epic migration south without having to share with very hungry young ones.
But, make no mistake, ospreys have had a rocky recovery since the 1950s. It was considered a nuisance bird in Great Britain, where recreational sportfishing was and is a thriving tourist industry. The osprey were hunted down and eradicated in the 1880s. It wasn’t until Scotland in the 1950s began reintroducing osprey on large private estates that numbers began to climb.
So thrilled were people at that time that at one nesting site, as many as 2,000,000 visitors came to see one nest. It’s that old story, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Osprey have been around for millions of years. Here’s hoping osprey and the ecosystem that supports them continues to thrive for millions more.
To learn more about Poole’s work and the ospreys’ amazing recovery, visit academy.allaboutbirds.org/person/alan-poole or massaudubon.org/places-to-explore/wildlife-sanctuaries/allens-pond/projects/south-coast-osprey-project.
By Marilou Newell