Another sign of what we hope is the coming of Spring: the osprey. Nantucket ornithologist Vernon Laux previews the bird's seasonal return to the Cape and Islands.
This winter has progressed like a lion on the attack. February has to go down as one of the toughest, “ugliest” months on record. Fortuitously it had to come to an end. As I record this watching the bright sun melting snow and ice everywhere, accompanied by abundant bird song, it seems that whatever injustices I felt February inflicted-it is all part of “Nature’s Way”. The cycle of the seasons while predictable to a certain extent is always highly variable and different especially as one gets further from the equator.
One thing that I know is true is that it can’t continue to be cold and that the annual cycle of life is proceeding-right on its own schedule. The calendar indicates that it is March 11 and with a little fact checking one can see that the first Osprey, the real harbinger of spring for birders, is due to return in a little over a week. The earliest and most fired up male birds return to favored traditional nest sites on anywhere from March 17 to 25. By April Fool’s Day the Ospreys are back and paired off in considerable numbers.
There is something unexplainable, joyful and mysterious, powerful and life affirming, about that first look at an Osprey in a new year, in March, when the trees are bare. While it is fun to see Osprey in the Amazon Basin, in Florida and along the Gulf Coast in winter, these birds don’t have the same “home field” impact, if you will, of newly arrived Cape and Island birds in the spring. The Red Sox are playing in Fort Myers and most of the many resident Ospreys in South Florida are already feeding their chicks in the nest. They have adapted to the climate there and nest much earlier than their northern brethren for a slew of reasons.
The birds heading for and eventually arriving in our area are fascinating. Let’s call them intrepid, spectacular, raptorial, winged fish-eaters that have done a lot since leaving here early last fall. They have navigated large chunks of the Americas, spent the winter on some Central or South American river or coast, and then rapidly moved back north, usually by a different route than in the fall, many island-hopping across the Caribbean or flying across the Gulf of Mexico, flying north into a still wintry breeding ground to arrive and lay claim to a nest site.
The point that got lost here is that the first Osprey sighting of the year is a prestigious and proud record. It’s kind of like winning the Nobel Prize without getting any recognition, fame, money or doing any work but you do get some satisfaction. A mention in the local paper is almost assured (the joy of it!). The only caveat being that the bird should be seen by more than one observer or photographed; it should be verified by another impartial observer and hopefully sighted by other parties.
The reason for all this is there have been some overzealous observers in the past attempting to lay claim to the “first sighting” without due diligence. Some rather creative observing has gone on and this we would like to avoid. Good luck and I hope you find the Cape and Islands first osprey of 2015.
