Osprey Tales

Harriett checks out the camera.

“I know what you are thinking.”

One egg every 2–3 days

During the breeding season ospreys lay 1 egg every 2–3 days……………One egg at a time.

The miracle continues.

The stone was moved away.

Eggs are usually laid in early morning hours

                        UV camera

Daylight

“Comments: lots of comments on The Eagle’s nest. I like comments. The Doctor does too.

“It was the female H sapien that found the Eagle’s nest,” said Harriett. “She helped the Doctor carry his camera equipment over some pretty rough terrain. She gets credit for the Eagle pictures.”

“I know the Doctor is looking for an egg,” said Harriett. “Well, I will lay eggs when I’m good and ready!”

Juvenile

Jonathan brings Harriett a fish.

Ospreys mate for life. Upon returning from South America the pairs reunite. In north America the breeding season is from April to July.

Hopefully, this week Harriett will lay 2 or 3 eggs.

The Doctor and his female Homo sapiens mate are excited.

Ospreys have high-pitched, whistling voices. Their calls can be given as a slow succession of chirps during flight or as an alarm call—or strung together into a series that rises in intensity and then falls away, similar to the sound of a whistling kettle taken rapidly off a stove. This second type of call is most often given as an unfamiliar Osprey approaches the nest. As the perceived threat increases, the call can build in intensity to a wavering squeal.

Sounds

naturesongs.com/osprJM1.wav

www.istrianet.org/istria/fauna/birds/sounds/pandion-haliaetus.wav

A dramatic decline of osprey populations between the 1940s and 1970 was caused by DDT-induced eggshell thinning.

DDT and PCBs built up in the fish the ospreys ate and made their egg shells so thin that adults crushed their progeny when they nested on them.

Public concern over DDT can be traced back to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring.

DDT had a similar effect on eagle eggs, before it was banned in 1972.