Still a few ospreys around.....

As our Osprey season begins to wind down, I savor the opportunity to spend some time searching for the remaining birds, listening to their food begging, watching their behaviors, reading some silver bands and re reading some color bands on our beloved Dads. Many nests are empty but I was surprised at how many ospreys I was able to locate today. I intended to spend half a day with the ospreys, but of course, I was out there all day. I was so happy to see a few of my favorite banded males, still attending to a remaining chick.
Last week I returned to the nest where the long time male had been hit and killed by a car. The nest had five ospreys flying around for hours! The neighbors reported it was the same the day before too. In addition there was an unbanded adult male in a tree watching it all. Lots of circling, chirping and occasionally trying to land on the nest, which caused another adult to chase him off. As I watched carefully, they appeared to be unbanded adult males. I heard one juvenile voice in the mix. It’s amazing how quickly other ospreys figured out that this was an undefended territory now. I pondered how it appeared differently to these birds, from a nest where the family has migrated away. There appeared to be at least one chick still there, with no adult male defending or feeding that youngster. I believe there were lots of subtle signals that caused all this commotion and testing by these adults. Tho this situation breaks my heart, I do find any circumstance like this interesting to watch. I remain so curious about behaviors. And just to be able to leisurely hang out today with some of the remaining chicks and dads on these final days soothes my soul. Below is a stunning photo sent by Ann Merritt, one of our wonderful monitors, of a juvenile who successfully caught a fish! Many will not be successful until they begin their first journey south. Gosh, what will we do without our winged friends? Every year it’s so hard to adjust to life without them.

This is an important post I am sharing from Paul Wildlifewriter in the UK...about water quality in Europe. Given the high failure rate in our Osprey population this year, and the fact that the failures are clustered in specific areas, this raises questions. I wish we had more money to be able to do blood tests and banding. 

INFOGRAPHIC: Europe's heavy metal band

Ospreys are an “indicator species”. What does that mean? It means that creatures such as ospreys, otters, water voles and many others, have a lifestyle that directly and measurably reflects the health (or otherwise) of the environment in which they live. 

In recent years, there's been a worrying discrepancy in the statistics on survival rates of juvenile ospreys in different regions of Europe. Studies in western zones (such as the UK) suggest that about 50-60% of fledged ospreys are still alive after their first year. BUT... researchers in Scandinavia insist that the comparable survival rate in THEIR study areas is lower – around 40%.

Are some of these results right, and others just wrong? Maybe not...

Comparing like-for-like is difficult and there are many factors to consider:- Swedish ospreys (for example) undertake generally longer migrations end to end, and have a wider expanse of the Sahara desert to cross before they can reach their wintering grounds. But would that make such a large difference? In theory, it shouldn't.

Over in the USA, the excellent Dr Erik Greene has established a causal link between mercury and other metallic compounds in the environment, and osprey population figures. [1] Greene's work is now widely cited in other surveys and the results cannot be doubted.

So what if the local variations in European osprey survival have nothing to do with migration? Is the “indicator species” giving us an indication that there might be a problem here, too? The graphic above shows the water quality status (mercury) from the last survey carried out by the European Environment Agency. It's a result that startled me – and it might surprise you as well.

-WLW

Sometimes, all you can do is cry....

Well my heart has broken about a thousand times this year.....and I have avoided sharing some of the saddest tales and disturbing photos. We have had a chick hanging dead on the side of a nest, one who got his talon caught and died unable to free himself, several hit by cars, the chick who got injured in the gravel pit machinery, a record number of failed nests, about a third of them. We lost our friend who had promised to help us repair or replace deteriorating nest poles ( he moved to another state). But the day before yesterday we lost a long time  breeding adult and I feel shattered. He had built a nest 8 years ago and been there ever since, breeding successfully EVERY year, producing 19 chicks during those years. Someone hit him with their car and killed him. His chicks are still dependent upon him for food. It is close to migration time so they will probably be alright....I hope anyway, since there is nothing we can really do to help them. The story is that, for some reason he was perched on the ground ( very windy day?) and the car did not even try to avoid him. I know this is the way of things, all ospreys will die, as will I ...but after all the rescues, and the ongoing long hours in the field trying to confirm successful fledging on all the nests, ( meaning that they didn’t just fly away, but were returning to the nest to eat...and were all accounted for post fledge), all the hours answering phone calls and emails....I feel so drained and saddened this September. To lose a great breeding adult like this is not just a personal loss....it is a loss to the entire Minnesota Osprey population. So many of my beloved Osprey friends have flown off to the other side...never to return. And I miss them, as I will this wonderful male.