Arrival of the Osprey

It's that time of year again.  The osprey almost have an internal biological clock, possibly the length of the day or environmental changes.  They arrive within a few days of March 15th to our area every year.  I thought I saw one at the neighbor's house on March 16th and quite a few more on the 17th.  There are sometimes haggles over who gets which nest.  I briefly saw 3 osprey at the nest, and later I thought there was some arguing going on.  The geese have been getting more agressive in recent years too and sometimes decide it is their nest.  At the moment, there are a pair of ospreys.  We enjoy watching them, even though we make them nervous when they see us.

Not a good photo, but you can see there were three.  The left one was obviously afraid and I believe the middle one was the agressor.

Eagles in January

 I love watching the bald eagles come to visit the osprey nest.  It is such a privilege to see them.

Bald Eagles were Visiting

When a pair of bald eagles came to visit, they separated and one sat on the post while the other used the osprey nest.  To try to turn the photo into one subject, I waited till they were looking at each other, or at least showed some animation.

Oops, careful there.  Don’t fall off!

That’s better.

The Great Blue Heron, our September Visitor 2021

Since the osprey left, another feathered visitor, the Great Blue Heron,  takes turns with the bald eagle.  They don’t seem to mind sharing the same lookout spot and each sometimes visits several times a day, just not at the same time.

Osprey in July 2021

 Some nearby osprey from my neighborhood in St. Mary's County.

An Icicle Day

From one of those storms on February 18th.  Notice how the eagle’s feathers are fluffed out to keep warm.  The icicles tell the story!

Nest visitors 2021

I am wondering if these are the geese who lived on the osprey nest last year.  Probably not.   They looked quite cozy.  They were with a flock and didn’t stay.  Other geese have visited as well as eagles.  (The osprey arrive from the south around mid-March.)

Bald Eagle Visits

Eagles have been visiting our osprey nest in the last few months.  They like using it to eat and look for food.

We Want Your Osprey Nest

 Osprey owners

 The Takeover

 Goose owners

Bald Eagles Stopped by to Check Out the Creek

 The osprey have probably flown south now, so the eagles felt free to hang out at the osprey nest again.  They came just in time for me to add some photos to the animal critique group I belong to in the Photographic Society of America yesterday.  This one seemed the sharpest and the others are bonus pictures for you.

The Osprey are Arriving!

Yesterday, an osprey showed up on our nest around dusk.  Today, I saw a bird again.  It isn't there now, but they typically wander around a bit before fixing up their chosen nest.  The neighbor's nest was just occupied a few days ago.  Usually, the bigger female arrives first.  Here is a picture of our visiting bird in today's gray weather.

The Osprey are Back

The osprey come back each year to our creek between about March 10-15 every year.  I wish my internal clock was that good!  We've got 1/2 of the pair so far.  I've never seen a pair arrive together.

We believe the female last year lost it's mate, so we don't know what to expect.  (See August 5, 2014 blog)  A new pair?  The baby female and a mate?

Photographed on March 16th

A Pair of Bald Eagles

We are fortunate to have some visiting bald eagles in the winter.  We had a pair visit over the weekend.  The enjoy sitting on the osprey nest to look around, occasionally bringing some food.  This time they didn't move around too much, but I can't resist taking their picture anyway.

The Bald Eagle is back

The bald eagle came back this week to hang out at our osprey nest.  In the summer, the osprey share a nest with house swallows and European starlings.  Out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw the eagle shoo away some of the birds living in the nest.  But he must have gotten too busy eating breakfast to bother with the 7 or 8 birds that came back to visit their home.

The Private Osprey War 2014

I captured some somewhat unusual video footage of a male osprey attacking the pair on our nearby osprey nest.  Six short videos totaling about 3 minutes of footage have been pieced together.

The attacking bird was extremely aggressive.  He actually picked up a bird by the claws (not shown) and tossed it into the water, stomped on the birds,  and tried to knock them out of the sky.  One bird was cut on the leg.  Meanwhile, the nesting pair tried to build up their nest, even carrying a large stick that had fallen into the water to add to the nest.

The private war was quite exciting to watch, but I kept hoping that none of the birds would be critically injured. (and I don't think they were)  I am wondering if the birds were fighting over the nest or the female.  The nest is quite popular and there might be a shortage of good nests nearby. 

The female is the larger bird with a sort of brown necklace of feathers.

Please comment if you like or if you notice anything interesting about the behaviors of the birds.

An Unexpected Visitor

Imagine my surprise when two daring geese decided to check out the view from the osprey nest, after the osprey had returned for the season.  These two were keeping an eye out in both directions.  Beneath the nest, two friends kept watch for dangers below.  So far I have seen osprey, eagles, great blue herons, geese and various little birds on the nest.  Popular place!!

Bald Eagles in St. Mary's County

I've been seeing a lot of bald eagles lately.  They are bolder in the winter when the ospreys aren't around.  I suspect that there is a family of three eagles.  There is an immature brown and white eagle and two adult bald eagles.  I rarely see all three of them at once.  This week I mostly photographed one adult eagle sitting on the osprey nest, having breakfast.  The other eagles were flying around, and the one on the nest was squawking at them.  They never seem to visit when the light is good and early in the morning, but I dutifully photograph them anyway.  The sky and the water were somewhat gray on this particular day.