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Holiday 2018
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boatingonthehudson.com
One can easily identify an osprey by the crook in its wings when it
is soaring. The “bend in the elbows” and long rather thin wings easily
distinguishes it from the flat and broad wings of the eagle. Like the
eagle, the only distinguishing gender difference is that the female is
about one third larger than the male and first year birds have larger
flight feathers making them appear larger than the adults.
As much as the osprey is compared to the bald eagle, their weights
are significantly different, a fact that will play into my experiences
later. The Eagle weighs close to10 pounds or more and the osprey
only 3.5 or one third that offer national symbol! Its common names
did get one thing right and that is FISH. The osprey is built for
fishing! It eats only fish. Eagle’s are more like vultures in their diets.
The osprey has made a tremendous comeback from avian diseases,
pollution and habitat loss. Nesting platforms have been constructed
in wetlands and tidal marshes all over North America. It seems like
everyone on the river has an osprey story so here are a few of mine.
It wasn’t too long ago that seeking and osprey was a rare occasion.
Several years ago I joined a group of bird watchers at State Line
Lookout in Alpine, Nj. The lookout is in The Palisades Interstate Park
on the cliffs and offers a great view of the fall raptor migration. From
our perch we can see up to the Tappan Zee Bridge and down past
Yonkers and affords us the ability to look down and up at passing
birds. In the past several years through conservation and laws,
bunker (menhaden) have come into the Hudson in large schools.
Ospreys feed on the bunker as they work their way south. IN 2011 the
total osprey count for the year (10 weeks) was 445 birds. This years
(2018) count for the month of September alone (4 weeks) has been
794 birds! It is not unusual to see an osprey with a fish taking it “to
go” as they fly south.
Ospreys are supreme anglers. Soaring over the water, they fly in
circles using their great eyesight to locate a hapless school close to
the surface, In an instant they drop to the water talons armed for the
snatch sometimes hating the water. With their quarry thoroughly
skewered they have to work hard to get airborne. Note, most raptors
talons are designed to grip and not let go. There have been stories
of ospreys tackling a bunker too big and drowning though I haven’t
witnessed such a situation. As the bird works to get airborne with a
not so happy bunker, it is vulnerable to another danger. The bald eagle
is an opportunist. Many time I have seen an eagle fly down and attack
an osprey trying to steal its prize. Many times the osprey’s defense
is to bare its talons and drop its dinner into the drink. The eagles
bullying tactic gets it an easy meal. Ospreys are not push overs though
and will go after the heavier eagle in a scramble over the Hudson.
They are known to cut the head off of their fish and face them forward
to make their burden more streamlined. When not migrating resident
birds will go back to the same perch in a tree or on a pole to eat. Once
while walking in the woods far away from any known waterway, I
found a slew of partially eaten carp under a tree. I surmised that it
was the work of a sloppy osprey.
As I mentioned Ospreys migrate out of the Hudson River area in the
fall. Sightings are rare in November. As the winter winds chill and fish
become less available, they follow the food. They will return in the
spring to remind us that they are the Hudson River’s greatest anglers.