| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| OSPREYS ARRIVE TO SANDY HOOK BAY
OSPREYS ARRIVE TO SANDY HOOK BAY It is the last week of March and it is a beautiful day. The spring season has finally arrived to the Bayshore watershed region. The sun is poking out of towering fluffy white c umulusclouds that are scattered about the deep cobalt sky. Temperatures are around the high 60s. The sun and the warm temperatures offer a welcome reprieve from the chilly and windy weather conditions the previous week. With daylight lasting longer and new flowers in bloom every day we seem to at long last be passing from winter into spring. Spring, in part, is characterized by the northbound journey of over 150 migratory bird species. Coastal waterbird migration begins to a degree in early March with the arrival of Killdeer, American Oystercatchers, Great Egrets, and Piping Plovers. On beautiful warm sunny days in spring, I too follow my own migratory impulses to trek down to the bay at Sandy Hook. The variety of waterbirds that gather round here sparks a sort of ornithological spring fever for local bird lovers. (Two Ospreys flying high over Sandy Hook Bay. Notice the classic M-Shape of their bodies in flight.) The tide is high when I arrive. I begin my walk with binoculars in hand along the narrow empty bayside beach. One of the greatest delights of birding on an estuarine shoreline during late March is a chance to see an osprey. Around late February, our summer-resident Osprey population will follow their instincts to migrate northward from their winter feeding grounds in the tropics to their nesting territory in the north. A monogamous pair of male and female ospreys will return to same nest location year after year. (An Osprey bringing nesting material to its home in Spermacetti Cove) The male osprey usually returns first to defend the nest from other birds and to do a bit of refurbishing from winter storms that have done damage. A female osprey will return soon after. Once together again, the pair of ospreys will spend some time in a courtship behavior that reinforces their bond and commitment to a new breeding season. The nuptial behavior usually involves a “sky dance” by the male. He will give a few high-pitched calls and carry out a series of roller-coaster flights several hundred feet over the nest to impress the female. It is brief, but an amazing show that I have seen many times living along the Jersey Shore. Over head of me, I hear the shrill whistle voice of an osprey flying high over Sandy Hook Bay. The bird’s six-foot long, M-shaped wing-span makes it hard to confuse with any other large white and black bird. The Osprey seems to have a long stick in its talons, possibly to use to repair its nest. Seeing a majestic osprey in flight for the first time this season reminds me of a poem I once heard in Maryland several years ago. It was by poet Lamont Palmer of the Chesapeake Bay region. From his poem entitled, a-Kent Island Bird, he wrote: Osprey, brown above, white below, While a flying osprey echoes with poetry, I am ponder just how lucky I am to even being able to see this characteristic bird of the Jersey Shore. It was not so long ago that the bird’s existence was nearly done in by our society’s love affair with all things synthetic. In New Jersey during the 1950s and 60s, many coastal communities made widespread use of a deadly pesticide called DDT. It was a scientist named Rachel Carson, however, in her classic book "Silent Spring” that alerted people and politicians to the fact that DDT was working its way up the food chain and thinning the eggshells of Ospreys and other birds of prey around the United States. As a result of her work and the work of countless people around the nation, DDT was banned for use in the United States in 1972. Although the Osprey is now a threatened species in New Jersey, it has once again become a familiar bird along the Jersey Shore. Yet, as unbelievable as it may sound, DDT is still being used in many developing nations by farmers around the world, including in South America where our Sandy Hook Bay Ospreys may have spent the winter. These birds could have ingested DDT contaminated fish before returning to the United States. What harm this plays in the biology of Ospreys is still unknown. Certainly if we care about preserving a place for migratory birds in our society then we need to ban the use of deadly chemicals worldwide. (A male osprey perched next to its summer home to guard it against other Ospreys that might want to make it their residence for the nesting season) The Osprey flies to its nest with the stick and I follow. The nest is one of several man-made nesting platforms at Sandy Hook. This one is located in Spermacetti Cove, across from the park’s Visitor Center. Ospreys will add new material to old nests each season. I watch as the male Osprey brings new nesting material to his dwelling high above the water at Spermacetti Cove. Over the course of an hour or two, the Osprey carried many sticks, small piles of braches, some rope, and seaweed. The nest has to be comfortable enough to support a female and young for several months. By April, Ospreys will be nesting and there will probably be two to three eggs in the nest. They will hatch in about 4 to 5 weeks and after about 10 weeks the young will have all their flight feathers. The female will stay on the nest the majority of the time during the spring and summer to take care of the young and the nest, with the male giving her an occasional break when she leaves to hunt for food. I start now to saunter back up the path to my vehicle and to home. I take one last look back at the Osprey as it flies away from the nest to come across further nesting material. It is good to have them back to Sandy Hook Bay. As always, I have been enriched by the experience of seeing the Osprey’s homecoming. | ||||||||
print
