Cape May State Park and Nature Conservancy

Two of my favorite places for nature meditation are the state park in Cape May Point, and the nearby Nature Conservancy. Both always yield something of interest, and both provide an environment for contemplation and discovery.

A few highlights ...

Least Tern

Laughing Gull

Spotted Sandpiper

The Swamp Rose Mallow throughout the marshes was stunning ...

Swamp Rose Mallow

Swamp Rose Mallow

Mute Swans are exotics, and pose problems for native species, but there is no denying that they are beautiful birds, and magnificent in flight ...

Mute Swans

Equally magnificent in flight is the Osprey ...

Osprey

Osprey

This young Great Blue Heron caught a hearty breakfast, but could not figure out how to manipulate his catch so that it could be swallow head first. He flew a short distance to a dry patch of ground, dropped this fish, stabbed at it once or twice, then picked it up with head positioned correctly. In third picture, note the "throat bulge" of the swallowed fish ...

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Watching the Snowy Egret foraging in shallow water was a thing of delicate beauty (unless you happened to be a small fish) ...

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Good Birding!!

Everglades Sampler

I am finally to the Everglades, a uniquely beautiful gem among our National Park system. Many of the birds introduced earlier in this extended blog series were also present in the Everglades. Here I give a sampling of birds not seen - or not photographed - previously in our south Florida travels.

A surprise sighting (and one noted by a naturalist in the Visitor's Center) was this Western Kingbird ...

Western Kingbird

Briefly we watched as 3 Swallow-tailed Kites soared and swooped overhead, a study of winged gracefulness, and one which I wish I could have seen more of ...

Swallow-tailed Kite

Alas, during our Florida travels we had only one encounter with a Roseate Spoonbill, but it was a treat ...

Roseate Spoonbill

The birds of prey were well into their nesting season. We saw Red-shouldered young not long out of the nest. In Flamingo, there were several Osprey nests which were active in incubating or feeding young ...

Osprey

... and on two occasions, nestling Barred Owls tipped off their presence by hooting for food. ...

Barred Owl (nestling)

Not feathered, but still fauna, were these deer ...

White-tailed Deer

And finally, while driving the keys, we stopped at The Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary, a funky and fascinating rehab center. High in a tree, a Great Horned Owl kept watch over the visitors ...

Great Horned Owl

Spring Returns - and so do Old Friends

Since returning home to Vermont from our wintering in Philadelphia, we have been immersed in needed work on our home - hence the hiatus in posts.

But today was a Spring day, and early in the morning I headed out to greet returning friends.

Along the Connecticut River, abundant Yellow-rumped Warblers in their prom-going finery were joined by a few Palm Warblers ...

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Palm Warbler

Palm Warbler

Also along the Connecticut River, Osprey were busy building their nest on a transmission tower and pursing their courtship ...

Osprey

In nearly every location I stopped, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were actively "singing" and displaying ...

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

During late April in our back yard, we watched many species in active courtship, including Yellow-bellied Sapsucker ...

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

 ... and Belted Kingfisher, a trio of which put on quite an air show one evening as we sat on the lawn.

Belted Kingfisher

In the realm of serendipitous good fortune, Evening Grosbeaks are again performing their pre-nups in our yard, and we anticipate that we will have another summer of helping to raise their young.

Evening Grosbeak

And finally, when I returned home for lunch, I was greeted by a stunning Rose-breasted Grosbeak and his shy lady lover ...

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

 Spring!! ... and after a long, tough winter, a time of exceptionally Good Birding!!

Brigantine Today

After two months in Philadelphia, we finally got a good day for driving to, and birding, some of the prime nearby place. We made an early morning drive to Forsyth NWR, Brigantine unit. Good birding, and a few decent photographic opportunities.

Highlight undoubtedly was the number of Osprey setting up housekeeping for another summer. I never remember to begin an actual count until I am well along, so I have to estimate that we saw at least 15-20 Osprey ...

Osprey

Male Osprey off to forage and prove he can provide for her chicks.

Tree Swallows return early, but Barn Swallows were also present today, and Purple Martins were staking claim to nesting sites ...

Purple Martin

 The large wintering flocks of waterfowl have, for the most part, gone north, but there were still good numbers present. A sampling ...

Hooded Mergansers - female

Brandt

Green-winged Teal

Among the returning songbirds, I was most delighted by the Black-and-White Warbler, a forerunner of the warblers that make our eastern states the envy of the world ...

Black-and-White Warbler

And finally, closer to our Philadelphia home in the last week, highlights include Rusty Blackbird at Heinz NRW ...

Rusty Blackbird

... and up to 25 Wood Ducks along the Wissahickon Creek.

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

Good Birding!!

Osprey - A Unique Bird of Prey

Osprey migrating over Putney Mountain in SE Vermont

The e-mailer was driving along Route 142 near the Connecticut River when she saw a bird just above the water. She wrote: “This bird was big! Very light, mottled feathers, mostly white, but what really caught my eye was the distinctive black eye ‘patch’. As I watched, the bird made a very tight circle, folded it's wings, and dove straight into the water! It flew back out, apparently unsuccessful, because I did not see anything in it's talons.”

She saw an Osprey, also known as the Fish Hawk. With its recovery from the devastation caused by DDT, the Osprey is again a common bird along the New England coast, and may be seen anywhere in Vermont where there is water - along our rivers, lakes, and large ponds.

The Osprey’s diet is almost exclusively fish, and from what I have been able to determine, almost exclusively fresh fish. It hovers 30-100 feet above the water surface looking for fish near the surface. Finding its prey, it plunges to the water, sometimes completely submerging save for wing tips. Terres in Encyclopedia of North American Birds completes the description of the Osprey’s fishing: “Rises from water with fish gripped in both feet, pauses in midair to shake water from plumage, and to arrange fish with head pointed forward, which reduces its resistance to air, flies with it to habitual perch to eat or to nest to feed young. Reported to carry fish up to 4lbs or more.” This dull description only hints at the excitement generated when you are able to watch the real thing.

Osprey hunting over Texas wetland

The Osprey is the only bird which fishes in this manner. Gulls plop on the surface. Many aerial sea birds, like pelicans or gannets, plunge dive, capturing fish in their beaks. The Bald Eagle, also a “fish hawk,” plucks fish near the surface with its talons.

The Osprey and the Bald Eagle pose interesting contrasts. The Osprey rarely eats dead fish; the Bald Eagle enjoys dead fish, and dead anything else. The Osprey is a tireless fisher. It will consume its catch, then go hunting for more. The Bald Eagle does as little work as possible. When in the mood for fresh meat, rather than carrion, it is content to let the Osprey catch a fish and then steal it.

Osprey feeding in a New Jersey salt marsh

An older naturalist, like Edward Forbush, always wrote of the benefit or harm that a particular bird posed to humans. In contrast to many other hawks, Forbush could write of the Osprey that all “the evidence available points to the conclusion that the Osprey is harmless to poultry, birds and game, and that most of the fish that it takes are species of little value to mankind. Fishermen usually welcome it as a guide to good fishing. All things considered, this great, handsome, picturesque and interesting bird must be regarded as a subject for perpetual protection.”

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an even greater contrast in attitude was found among coastal farmers. Where most people in those times considered hawks vermin to be exterminated (most hawks, given the opportunity, would take a barnyard chicken), coastal farmers and fishermen actively protected Osprey. They watched Ospreys aggressively protecting their nests, eggs, and young. The farmers’ young chickens ran free during the summer; it was assumed that the Osprey protected the chickens from other hawks. Coastal farmers were anxious to have Osprey nesting close to their farmyard, so they  set up nesting platforms for them - a tall pole with a wheel fixed on its top.

Osprey "home repairs" in May at Forsyth NWR, NJ

However, John James Audubon was the more complete observer of the Osprey. In the mid-nineteenth century he described the Osprey, or Fish Hawk as he knew it, as having a mild disposition: “Not only do these birds live in perfect harmony together, but they even allow other birds of very different character to approach so near to them as to build their nests of the very materials of which the outer parts of their own are constructed. I have never observed a Fish Hawk chasing any other bird whatever.”

He also debunks the coastal farmers belief that the Osprey protected the barnyard chickens from other hawks. Rather than staying away from the Ospreys, the other hawks simply went away; they went inland “for the purpose of rearing their young in security.” When the shorebirds and waterfowl returned to the coastal marshes, the other hawks returned as well. By then, the Osprey had completed its nesting and had begun moving south.

Osprey aerie atop a pinnacle in Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

The Osprey is one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, found on every continent in the world except Antarctica and even on some remote Pacific Islands. In the western hemisphere it nests in North America; northern populations migrate to warmer climates for the winter.

The Osprey is a unique bird of prey. It belongs to the Order: Falconiformes - the diurnal birds of prey. But the Osprey has been on its own evolutionary path for a long time. Taxonomic classification constantly changes. At one time the Osprey was in a Family by itself; the other Families being Hawk Family and Falcon Family. Current classification puts it in a sub-Family of the Hawk Family, making it a little more closely related to the hawks and eagles than to the falcons, but not by much. It is the only member of its sub-Family.

The point is, there are things about the Osprey that are unique among the diurnal birds of prey. For example, the Osprey has long, strong claws, curved about one-third of a circle. The claws are round. The toes are equal length. The lower surface of the toes are covered with spicules (small, bony spines) which help hold slippery fish. The outer toe is reversible (like an owls’) so that it can hold prey with two toes in front and two in back. Its plumage is compact which reduces wetting when it plunges into the water. These are only some features of the Osprey which make it unique among the hawks.

The scientific name for the Osprey is Pandion haliaetus. The genus name refers to the complicated Greek legend of Pandion, king of Athens, and his two daughters. The rules of taxonomic nomenclature require that once a name has been applied, we are stuck with it, even if it is wrong. This is one of those cases; there is no reasonable, or even unreasonable, reason for applying the name “Pandion” to the Osprey. The best that can be said, is that this was a flight of mythological exuberance. The species name, haliaetus, does a little better; it means “sea eagle” from the Greek.

Osprey feeding young

How the name “Osprey” came to be applied to this “Fish Hawk” is a mystery. “Osprey” probably derives from the Latin, meaning something like “bone breaker.” The original “bone-breaker” known to the Romans was the Lammergeier, or “lamb vulture,” which dropped bones from a height in order to break them. No one seems to know how “osprey” came to be applied to the bird we know. However, translators of the King James Version (1611) do refer to “the eagle, the ossifrage, and the ospray.” An early commentator on this translation explains that the ossifrage is a “species of eagle” and the osprey is “the black eagle.” Clearly these theologians were a bit confused, especially since Shakespeare a few years earlier had written (correctly) in Coriolanus: “As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it by sovereignty of nature.” This suggests that for reliable observations of the natural world, you may be better served by a poet than by a theologian.

Good birding!

Putney Mountain - Hawks and More

After the big flight of Broad-winged Hawks last weekend, the counts tapered off dramatically with hawks often coming few and far between.

Searching the sky for hawks

Even so, there were moments, such as the hour when there were 20 Osprey, and the 20 minutes when there were 5 Bald Eagles ...

Osprey migrating over Putney Mountain

Among the other rather hard-to-come-by raptor highlights, was this beautifully backlit Cooper's Hawk ...

Cooper;s Hawk

 The slow hawk flights gave time to search the ridge for other "things with wings" ... such as a migrating Magnolia Warbler ...

Magnolia Warbler

... and butterflies - American Lady and "Summer" Azure ...

American Lady

"Summer" Azure

 Dragonflies are often seen flying over the clearing, and occasionally being taken by a kestrel or sharpie. One day this week, Shadow Darners were racing everywhere, but seldom resting. Early in the day, I captured one who paused briefly ...

Shadow Darner

Putney Mountain Hawk Watch is occasionally short on hawks, but rarely short on the magic of the Green Mountains ...

... and when things become really lazy, well you just sit down for a period of somnolent contemplation ...

Good Birding!!