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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 16, 2000 - The osprey's ongoing sagaSA • The Suffolk Times • March 16, 2000 The ospre s ongoing saga How reassuring it was to see the first osprey last week. And to think it came to the highest point in Southold Town, the high tower behind the high- way department in Peconic. From there it can survey the land for miles around and it is but a short flight to the fishing grounds of our creeks and bays, where it will dive and retrieve its food. It's believed Focus that ospreys mate for life and ON meet each year NATUREbackattheirold nest. All winter by Raul long they have Stoutenburgh been by them- Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh selves fishing in the Caribbean or as far south as the Amazon River in Brazil. This particular osprey that is building its nest on the high tower is all by itself and I'm not sure whether it is the male or female. Either way, it isn't wasting any time, for I saw it fly in with a stick or branch to add to the nest. This adding to the nest each year in some instances can be a real prob- lem, particularly when the nest is in an old tree. Each year new material is added and the nest gets bigger and bigger until the sheer weight of it breaks the limb and the nest comes tumbling down. This isn't a problem if it happens during the off season but when it happens during nesting time, The actual sighting of an osprey in the early part of March tells us there are other changes taking place in our world. It tells us that the water has warml,d,up and that there is a new awakening in the mud. The eels and flounders that the osprey lives on dur- ing these early months are vital for their survival. Later, as the menhaden, or bunkers, move in, along with the weakfish, stripers and others, they will become fair game. The bunker, in par- ticular, is one of the favorite foods of the osprey and the one most often caught. Schools of these bunkers were once common throughout our bays and Sound but lately their numbers have dwindled because of overfishing. And now a new threat is taking its toll. Some people feel this new threat is depleting the bunker schools and therefore making it difficult for the ospreys to find enough food to feed their young. As I said earlier bunkers were the mainstay of the osprey. Often, if you look closely, you can see the shiny menhaden in the claws of the osprey as it flies by. When we spent summers on the beach the osprey from the nearby nest would often fly low directly over us carrying these shining fish. The predator that has moved in to cut down the number of bunkers available is the cormorant. This skillful fisherman has literally increased by the thousands in our local waters and one of its prime foods is the menhaden, par- ticularly the young menhaden. Dr. Paul Spitzer, who worked many years ago with our local ospreys, believes cormorants might be one of the reasons we had such poor nesting results in our osprey population last year. Could this lack of menhaden be the cause? At one time this fish was so com- mon that they were caught in long nets from shore by the mil- lions and used as fer- tilizer on our farms. Needless to say, you could tell when there were good hauls because there was an odor in the air of rot- ting fish. The Indians had taught the white under every hill of corn. Later fish meal from fish such as the bunker was made into fertilizer and even food upplements for cattle and poultry. e depletion of the bunkers shows nce again man's greed. He literally ished himself out of the menhaden usiness and in so doing changed nature's balance. The increase in the cormorant pop- ulation has become such a problem that in places where commercial fish- ing is taking place harsh steps are being called for. The destruction of the eggs at the nesting sites is being con- sidered. Nature has become out of balance and solutions are not that eas- ily found. I have worked with ospreys for the past 40 or 50 years and have seen many of their nests. Some, like on Gardiners Island, are built right on the sand because they have no land predators. Through the years their nests have piled up rubble three to six feet in height. I've seen an osprey fly toward a tree, grab onto a branch and snap it off and carry it back to its nest. When cornstalks were the thing years ago I remember seeing an osprey dive down to the ground and pick up a cornstalk and fly back to its All sorts of objects are used — old shoes, rope, seaweed, plastics, almost anything — and even the deadly killer, monofilament fishing line, finds its way into the nesting site. I've rescued, with the help of my son, two ospreys that were dangling underneath their nests after they had been entangled in monofilament fish line. The fisherman who takes the line off the reel and throws it over- board is doing a grave injustice somewhere down the line (no pun intended). Monofilament never rots or decays but lays a deadly trap for fish, crabs, osprey and other birds. Some will get entangled and starve to a horrible death just because they can't rid themselves of someone's careless act. The natural location for an osprey nest is in a tree and when I was a kid that was the only place you'd find them. Later as I grew up I'd find they nested directly on the beach at Gar - diners Island but there they have had problems with gulls. The herring gull and the black- backed gull have be- come so numerous on the island that the osprey is continually being ha- w== --- mw assed by them. The gulls are so per- sistent that the osprey spends much of its time defending its nesting site when it should be out fishing. A par- tial solution was to move platforms inland on the island to get the ospreys away from the gulls. Once again we see nature out of balance, perhaps because man has provided so much food for the gulls and made their pick- ings so rewarding. Robins Island, on the other hand, still does not have gulls nesting on its shores. It's the outer islands like Plum and Gardiners that they nest on. The ospreys on Robins Island still build their nests in trees in the conventional way. If you want to see ospreys in their native habitat, which is rather hard to find these days, Robins Island is the place. Not that you can go on the island, but you can sail around it and see from the water the magnifi- cent tree nests along its edge. While we are on the topic of os- preys, Barbara and I have spent a good deal of time riding around to see if we could find the first osprey to arrive. One of the last places we vis- ited was Orient Beach State Park and what do you think we found? Atop one of the platforms, a mere 300 feet west of the buildings, out in the marsh to the right, was a great horned owl nesting on an osprey platform. We vis- ited it twice and each time we could plainly see the fluffy tufts of feathers that look like ears on this magnificent predator. So get in your car and take a trip to the state park. It's always a SA • The Suffolk Times • March 16, 2000 The ospre s ongoing saga How reassuring it was to see the first osprey last week. And to think it came to the highest point in Southold Town, the high tower behind the high- way department in Peconic. From there it can survey the land for miles around and it is but a short flight to the fishing grounds of our creeks and bays, where it will dive and retrieve its food. It's believed Focus that ospreys mate for life and ON meet each year NATUREbackattheirold nest. All winter by Raul long they have Stoutenburgh been by them- Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh selves fishing in the Caribbean or as far south as the Amazon River in Brazil. This particular osprey that is building its nest on the high tower is all by itself and I'm not sure whether it is the male or female. Either way, it isn't wasting any time, for I saw it fly in with a stick or branch to add to the nest. This adding to the nest each year in some instances can be a real prob- lem, particularly when the nest is in an old tree. Each year new material is added and the nest gets bigger and bigger until the sheer weight of it breaks the limb and the nest comes tumbling down. This isn't a problem if it happens during the off season but when it happens during nesting time, The actual sighting of an osprey in the early part of March tells us there are other changes taking place in our world. It tells us that the water has warml,d,up and that there is a new awakening in the mud. The eels and flounders that the osprey lives on dur- ing these early months are vital for their survival. Later, as the menhaden, or bunkers, move in, along with the weakfish, stripers and others, they will become fair game. The bunker, in par- ticular, is one of the favorite foods of the osprey and the one most often caught. Schools of these bunkers were once common throughout our bays and Sound but lately their numbers have dwindled because of overfishing. And now a new threat is taking its toll. Some people feel this new threat is depleting the bunker schools and therefore making it difficult for the ospreys to find enough food to feed their young. As I said earlier bunkers were the mainstay of the osprey. Often, if you look closely, you can see the shiny menhaden in the claws of the osprey as it flies by. When we spent summers on the beach the osprey from the nearby nest would often fly low directly over us carrying these shining fish. The predator that has moved in to cut down the number of bunkers available is the cormorant. This skillful fisherman has literally increased by the thousands in our local waters and one of its prime foods is the menhaden, par- ticularly the young menhaden. Dr. Paul Spitzer, who worked many years ago with our local ospreys, believes cormorants might be one of the reasons we had such poor nesting results in our osprey population last year. Could this lack of menhaden be the cause? At one time this fish was so com- mon that they were caught in long nets from shore by the mil- lions and used as fer- tilizer on our farms. Needless to say, you could tell when there were good hauls because there was an odor in the air of rot- ting fish. The Indians had taught the white under every hill of corn. Later fish meal from fish such as the bunker was made into fertilizer and even food upplements for cattle and poultry. e depletion of the bunkers shows nce again man's greed. He literally ished himself out of the menhaden usiness and in so doing changed nature's balance. The increase in the cormorant pop- ulation has become such a problem that in places where commercial fish- ing is taking place harsh steps are being called for. The destruction of the eggs at the nesting sites is being con- sidered. Nature has become out of balance and solutions are not that eas- ily found. I have worked with ospreys for the past 40 or 50 years and have seen many of their nests. Some, like on Gardiners Island, are built right on the sand because they have no land predators. Through the years their nests have piled up rubble three to six feet in height. I've seen an osprey fly toward a tree, grab onto a branch and snap it off and carry it back to its nest. When cornstalks were the thing years ago I remember seeing an osprey dive down to the ground and pick up a cornstalk and fly back to its All sorts of objects are used — old shoes, rope, seaweed, plastics, almost anything — and even the deadly killer, monofilament fishing line, finds its way into the nesting site. I've rescued, with the help of my son, two ospreys that were dangling underneath their nests after they had been entangled in monofilament fish line. The fisherman who takes the line off the reel and throws it over- board is doing a grave injustice somewhere down the line (no pun intended). Monofilament never rots or decays but lays a deadly trap for fish, crabs, osprey and other birds. Some will get entangled and starve to a horrible death just because they can't rid themselves of someone's careless act. The natural location for an osprey nest is in a tree and when I was a kid that was the only place you'd find them. Later as I grew up I'd find they nested directly on the beach at Gar - diners Island but there they have had problems with gulls. The herring gull and the black- backed gull have be- come so numerous on the island that the osprey is continually being ha- w== --- mw assed by them. The gulls are so per- sistent that the osprey spends much of its time defending its nesting site when it should be out fishing. A par- tial solution was to move platforms inland on the island to get the ospreys away from the gulls. Once again we see nature out of balance, perhaps because man has provided so much food for the gulls and made their pick- ings so rewarding. Robins Island, on the other hand, still does not have gulls nesting on its shores. It's the outer islands like Plum and Gardiners that they nest on. The ospreys on Robins Island still build their nests in trees in the conventional way. If you want to see ospreys in their native habitat, which is rather hard to find these days, Robins Island is the place. Not that you can go on the island, but you can sail around it and see from the water the magnifi- cent tree nests along its edge. While we are on the topic of os- preys, Barbara and I have spent a good deal of time riding around to see if we could find the first osprey to arrive. One of the last places we vis- ited was Orient Beach State Park and what do you think we found? Atop one of the platforms, a mere 300 feet west of the buildings, out in the marsh to the right, was a great horned owl nesting on an osprey platform. We vis- ited it twice and each time we could plainly see the fluffy tufts of feathers that look like ears on this magnificent predator. So get in your car and take a trip to the state park. It's always a SA • The Suffolk Times • March 16, 2000 The ospre s ongoing saga How reassuring it was to see the first osprey last week. And to think it came to the highest point in Southold Town, the high tower behind the high- way department in Peconic. From there it can survey the land for miles around and it is but a short flight to the fishing grounds of our creeks and bays, where it will dive and retrieve its food. It's believed Focus that ospreys mate for life and ON meet each year NATUREbackattheirold nest. All winter by Raul long they have Stoutenburgh been by them- Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh selves fishing in the Caribbean or as far south as the Amazon River in Brazil. This particular osprey that is building its nest on the high tower is all by itself and I'm not sure whether it is the male or female. Either way, it isn't wasting any time, for I saw it fly in with a stick or branch to add to the nest. This adding to the nest each year in some instances can be a real prob- lem, particularly when the nest is in an old tree. Each year new material is added and the nest gets bigger and bigger until the sheer weight of it breaks the limb and the nest comes tumbling down. This isn't a problem if it happens during the off season but when it happens during nesting time, The actual sighting of an osprey in the early part of March tells us there are other changes taking place in our world. It tells us that the water has warml,d,up and that there is a new awakening in the mud. The eels and flounders that the osprey lives on dur- ing these early months are vital for their survival. Later, as the menhaden, or bunkers, move in, along with the weakfish, stripers and others, they will become fair game. The bunker, in par- ticular, is one of the favorite foods of the osprey and the one most often caught. Schools of these bunkers were once common throughout our bays and Sound but lately their numbers have dwindled because of overfishing. And now a new threat is taking its toll. Some people feel this new threat is depleting the bunker schools and therefore making it difficult for the ospreys to find enough food to feed their young. As I said earlier bunkers were the mainstay of the osprey. Often, if you look closely, you can see the shiny menhaden in the claws of the osprey as it flies by. When we spent summers on the beach the osprey from the nearby nest would often fly low directly over us carrying these shining fish. The predator that has moved in to cut down the number of bunkers available is the cormorant. This skillful fisherman has literally increased by the thousands in our local waters and one of its prime foods is the menhaden, par- ticularly the young menhaden. Dr. Paul Spitzer, who worked many years ago with our local ospreys, believes cormorants might be one of the reasons we had such poor nesting results in our osprey population last year. Could this lack of menhaden be the cause? At one time this fish was so com- mon that they were caught in long nets from shore by the mil- lions and used as fer- tilizer on our farms. Needless to say, you could tell when there were good hauls because there was an odor in the air of rot- ting fish. The Indians had taught the white under every hill of corn. Later fish meal from fish such as the bunker was made into fertilizer and even food upplements for cattle and poultry. e depletion of the bunkers shows nce again man's greed. He literally ished himself out of the menhaden usiness and in so doing changed nature's balance. The increase in the cormorant pop- ulation has become such a problem that in places where commercial fish- ing is taking place harsh steps are being called for. The destruction of the eggs at the nesting sites is being con- sidered. Nature has become out of balance and solutions are not that eas- ily found. I have worked with ospreys for the past 40 or 50 years and have seen many of their nests. Some, like on Gardiners Island, are built right on the sand because they have no land predators. Through the years their nests have piled up rubble three to six feet in height. I've seen an osprey fly toward a tree, grab onto a branch and snap it off and carry it back to its nest. When cornstalks were the thing years ago I remember seeing an osprey dive down to the ground and pick up a cornstalk and fly back to its All sorts of objects are used — old shoes, rope, seaweed, plastics, almost anything — and even the deadly killer, monofilament fishing line, finds its way into the nesting site. I've rescued, with the help of my son, two ospreys that were dangling underneath their nests after they had been entangled in monofilament fish line. The fisherman who takes the line off the reel and throws it over- board is doing a grave injustice somewhere down the line (no pun intended). Monofilament never rots or decays but lays a deadly trap for fish, crabs, osprey and other birds. Some will get entangled and starve to a horrible death just because they can't rid themselves of someone's careless act. The natural location for an osprey nest is in a tree and when I was a kid that was the only place you'd find them. Later as I grew up I'd find they nested directly on the beach at Gar - diners Island but there they have had problems with gulls. The herring gull and the black- backed gull have be- come so numerous on the island that the osprey is continually being ha- w== --- mw assed by them. The gulls are so per- sistent that the osprey spends much of its time defending its nesting site when it should be out fishing. A par- tial solution was to move platforms inland on the island to get the ospreys away from the gulls. Once again we see nature out of balance, perhaps because man has provided so much food for the gulls and made their pick- ings so rewarding. Robins Island, on the other hand, still does not have gulls nesting on its shores. It's the outer islands like Plum and Gardiners that they nest on. The ospreys on Robins Island still build their nests in trees in the conventional way. If you want to see ospreys in their native habitat, which is rather hard to find these days, Robins Island is the place. Not that you can go on the island, but you can sail around it and see from the water the magnifi- cent tree nests along its edge. While we are on the topic of os- preys, Barbara and I have spent a good deal of time riding around to see if we could find the first osprey to arrive. One of the last places we vis- ited was Orient Beach State Park and what do you think we found? Atop one of the platforms, a mere 300 feet west of the buildings, out in the marsh to the right, was a great horned owl nesting on an osprey platform. We vis- ited it twice and each time we could plainly see the fluffy tufts of feathers that look like ears on this magnificent predator. So get in your car and take a trip to the state park. It's always a