While not an Osprey, I watched the Bald Eagles at Mud Lock do the same thing to
gather sticks. I never saw them not succeed at taking a stick off a tree so I
have no idea what would happen if it couldn't break it off. It's really cool
to watch them, isn't it?
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 24, 2013, at 7:47 PM, John Greenly j...@cornell.edu wrote:
I watched the Salt Point Ospreys for an hour this evening. During heavy rain
one landed repeatedly in the lake, apparently combining a shower from above
with a bath. The female perched on the box for long periods and the male
approached several times, apparently with mating in mind, but the female
always took off just as he got to hovering a foot or two above her. For the
last half hour the female stayed perched while the male brought sticks to the
box. This was rather spectacular: his collection method was to fly past a
tree, grab the end of a branch in his talons as he went by, and try to break
it off in flight. He succeeded five or six times, and deposited the
broken-off pieces, a foot or two long, in the nest. He failed more times
than he succeeded, including once when he got flipped upside down and
backwards by a hefty branch that didn't break and snapped back before he
could let go. Interesting flying, to say the least. The female sat and
watched the whole show, not noticeably impressed. I assume this is must be
the standard method of getting nice clean fresh sticks, but I didn't know
about it and was amazed.
--John Greenly
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
--
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
--
