Soaring Osprey
by Robert Bales
Title
Soaring Osprey
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
On one of my last walk before leaving Idaho, I was walking along the Payette River and this Osprey was soaring over the river looking for a fish for dinner.
Ospreys are superb fishers and indeed eat little elseish make up some 99 percent of their diet. Because of this appetite, these birds can be found near ponds, rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways around the world. Ospreys hunt by diving to the water's surface from some 30 to 100 feet (9 to 30 meters) up. They have gripping pads on their feet to help them pluck fish from the water with their curved claws and carry them for great distances. In flight, ospreys will orient the fish headfirst to ease wind resistance.
Human habitat is sometimes an aid to the osprey. The birds happily build large stick-and-sod nests on telephone poles, channel markers, and other such locations. Artificial nesting platforms are common in areas where preservationists are working to reestablish the birds. North American osprey populations became endangered in the 1950s due to chemical pollutants such as DDT, which thinned their eggshells and hampered reproduction. Ospreys have rebounded significantly in recent decades, though they remain scarce in some locales.
Most ospreys are migratory birds that breed in the north and migrate south for the winter. They lay eggs (typically three), which both parents help to incubate. Osprey eggs don't hatch all at once, but are staggered in time so that some siblings are older and more dominant. When food is scarce these stronger birds may take it all and leave their siblings to starve.
Uploaded
October 27th, 2013
Statistics
Viewed 1,812 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/17/2024 at 7:25 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Similar Images
Comments (10)
Recently Viewed
