Ospreys

Ospreys are on every continent except Antarctica. They are awesome fishers, nearly their whole diet is made up of fish and they catch fish by hovering then diving. In most places Ospreys migrate, the Ospreys in Florida and Mexico stay year-round and most of them migrate to those places. They build large nests like eagles (but a little smaller) and will occasionally use nesting platforms.

I have observed more Ospreys in and around Missoula. We have 2 Ospreys on our way to the cabin and I always ask Papa to stop so I can look at them and we saw them near the nest a few weeks ago. Last year we saw the chicks (there were 2 or 3) nearly fully fledged in the nest. I probably didn’t see the chicks earlier because they were too small to be seen in the large nest from below.

There’s an Osprey that lives by the Missoula College called Iris. Iris is a female Osprey who  has a camera on Cornell (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/hellgate-ospreys/). Erik Greene helps run Iris’s camera at Missoula College and guess what? Iris is back! She arrived a few weeks ago and now is the oldest Osprey known in the world! There’s a book about Iris and Ospreys called The Call of the Osprey.

Do you have Ospreys near you? Have you ever seen an Osprey in the nest or fishing? Have you ever seen a Bald Eagle chasing a Osprey for a fish