The ospreys are back

It has been a cold spring this year but the warm weather we experienced this week has certainly given me hope that better times are ahead. Another sign I saw that the season is changing was an osprey. It was the first one I’d seen this year and it was a welcome sight.

Ospreys are a bird of prey, smaller than an eagle, but larger than a hawk, and are commonly known as fish hawks. Beginning now, and until the fall, you will see them hovering in the air over coastal areas as they hunt for fish in bays, lakes and rivers. Once they spot a fish, they make a spectacular feet-first dive, often disappearing under the water. Using their powerful wings they rise up from the water carrying the fish in their talons. Ospreys feed primarily on tomcod and flounder or, in fresh water, they target suckers, perch and gaspereau.

If you have never seen an osprey while they were fishing, you may have seen them while they are on their nest raising young. Osprey nests are massive bundles of sticks, similar to those built by eagles but, unlike eagle nests, they are much easier to find. They build them in dead trees, on power poles and even cliff tops. Since building a nest on a power pole is never good for either the ospreys or for those of us depending on electricity, the power corporation often moves osprey nests from power poles. Over the years they have developed an effective system of poles and platforms where the ospreys appear to be content raising their young away from live wires.

Ospreys depend on open water to feed so, before ice begins to form late in the fall, they begin migrating south to the southern United States and both Central and South America.

The most current information I could find reported that there are currently about 400 breeding pairs in Nova Scotia. We have a special relationship with the osprey as it was declared our Provincial Bird by an Act of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly back in 1994.

I find birds’ nests to be a fascinating part of their life’s cycle. Spring is a great time to see nests which may be difficult to see during summer and fall when leaves are on the trees. The variety of building materials, styles and where they build them is amazing. Some birds create a nest by digging into the earth or trees.

There is a pool on the Margaree River known as the Swallow’s Bank where the swallows have dug their nests into the soft earth of the river bank. If the fish aren’t biting I enjoy watching the bank swallows as they fly over the river.

Some birds do not build a nest. Murres found on islands off Newfoundland lay their eggs on rocky cliffs. Nesting material is scarce so they lay their eggs on the ground and cover them with their bodies. Having an egg roll away could be a big problem but murre eggs have a pointed end which makes them roll in a circle, providing some measure of protection from rolling off the cliff.

Sometimes birds take advantage of our attempts to help them out by nesting in bird houses. Usually they attract smaller birds but many conservation groups have helped wood duck populations in the province by setting out nesting boxes for these species. Wood ducks normally nest in natural cavities in trees but when these sites are scarce they will take advantage of artificial boxes and successfully produce broods. I’ve built several owl nest boxes which the owls haven’t discovered yet. Hopefully this will be the year.

With the fine weather finally here I think I will join the ospreys and go fishing.