Osprey. Also known as the fish hawk, ospreys are raptors that are well adapted for fishing. The birds have long legs and large feet with specialized barbs on the pads, hooked talons, and a reversible outer toe. This allows them to easily grasp fish with two toes pointing to the front and two pointing to the rear. I took this picture few days ago in our neighborhood.
Sam
More Pictures from Eagle Deepthie
These are pic I have taken over the years . The latest- taken Sunday Jan
12th- 2020- in Sedona , AZ.
Bald Eagle .– is a ‘sea eagle ‘ – and live near water, where the preferred
food source is fish . It will become an opportunistic feeder- feeding on
rodents, snakes, crabs, rabbits , carrion of road kills ( deer, ) when
fish is not available.
Like the Osprey- – it grabs the food by its claws — tallons – as they are
called . They are curved , hook like , to grab and hold on to the prey
while flying .
Eagles- and Osprey are NOT friends with each other as they compete for the
same food source , and will harass each other , and usually the eagle wins
the battle .
I have seen this play out in REAL Life, on Georgian Bay, Ontario, where I
live .
Very interesting to watch this hide and seek game between the avian top
predators .
Also- the Bald Eagle will raid nests of Blue Herons , for eggs and chicks
– when salmon gets scarce in the salmon spawning rivers of British Colombia
, due to various reasons , mostly due to increase consumption of salmon by
human , bear and salmon wolf.
Eagles- have a Feast and Famine metabolism and will go without food for a
few good days , like four days . It will gorge on food when plenty, and
regurgitate it and eat it over a few days .
Nesting — Osprey- commonly will nests on human made structures- like
platforms made by Osprey Society of Ontario , TV antenna, Telephone poles,
like I saw in Florida .
The nest that is shown in Sam’s photo is a man made platform for Osprey
nesting . They will return to this same nest year after year .
They will also nest on tall trees .
Eagles- nest high up on trees – White Pine and Cedar, that grow near
water , making large nests weighing many hundreds of pounds and will do
‘home reno’ year after year .
Both species mate for life, and if one spouse dies, the surviving one will
find mate .
Bald Eagle – considered as Sacred for ALL Indigenous Peoples of North
America and Canada . Only Indigenous tribal members are allowed to carry
Eagle Feathers across the US- Canada Border .
Bald Eagle– National Emblem of United States of America, since 1782, but
it got almost wiped out due to DDT spraying in the later 1940’s – early
1950’s .
Once DDT was banned , the population bounced back — Thanks to the efforts
of Rachel Carson — look up Google on the Life and Times of Rachel Carson .
Largest population of Bald Eagles in USA- found in Alaska.
Canada it is in British Columbia – where hundreds gather during salmon
spawning season . They gather in large numbers near fish processing plants
and garbage dumps in – BC , Delta, BC , near the Fraser River .
There are Bald Eagle Festival days for BC , Canada, and for different
States of USA, along the Pacific Coast States , during the month of November
.
Enjoy the Story Telling of Eagles and Ospreys !
Eagledeepthie .
