Chesapeake Bay Osprey

 


Our beautiful Osprey have been back for two months now and are in abundance everywhere around the Chesapeake Bay.
 

 

 

 

Old nests are renovated and new ones constructed, wherever they could find suitable real estate near or over water. Here are just a few of my local nests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Osprey do get creative with their nests!

Usually by the end of April, the Chesapeake Bay Osprey have laid 2-4 eggs; so it is now brooding time, which is the female’s primary job.

The male will continue to bring materials to strengthen the nest. In addition, he needs to ramp up his fishing skills to bring home the bacon…..er…..fish for his lady in waiting and upcoming family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, Mr Osprey, you better do better than that or the Mrs will not be happy!

 


Huh?

 


Mr Osprey is back at it, fishing!


Next post I’ll share an Osprey in fishing action!

 

62 thoughts on “Chesapeake Bay Osprey

  1. Such amazing ingenuity when it comes to finding places to live, sad just to see the plastic. But, that’s what it looks like near urban areas these days.

    • Thanks, Hans! We even have them being built atop boats, much to the dismay of boat owners. The plastic is definitely a problem, seen in the Osprey nests all the time. I even have photos several years back of a small stuffed animal in an Osprey nest.

  2. A very interesting post Donna, seeing the creative ways Osprey nest. Some great shots. Good to read you sharing your favourite bird again. We have not seen ours for some time.

  3. Lots of nests, though #15 has me feeling somewhat doubtful. I hope it is packed in tight. Very exciting to anticipate this year’s offspring. I enjoyed the laugh from the fellow with the tousled head. This is my favourite time of year to watch birds but mostly staying indoors due to very poor air quality from forest fires. Got my sites in mind, hopefully get out soon.

    • Thank you, Jane! We are truly fortunate to have so many Osprey around the Chesapeake Bay, and now they vie for those great real estate locations. I’m looking forward to seeing those curious little dinosaur-looking heads popping up soon. 🙂 I hope winds shift soon so you can get out and about with your birds!!

  4. Amazing catalogue of nests!

    This time of year is so neat as our local Ospreys are teaching the recently fledged young ones how to fish.

    Wonderful photographs!

    • The nests on the triangle channel markers are the ones that are almost doomed to fail, it is heartbreaking. The nests collapse inside the tubular metal pier. And if a couple chicks do make it, the space quickly becomes too small. I saw one chick that had fallen off and was trying its best to swim to a small sandbar. A wildlife rescuer came and saved it but I don’t know what ever happened. 🙁 The rest of those nests are good to go and will be quite noisy very soon! 🙂

  5. Can you feel the waves in envy coming across the ocean? If we have an osprey here, it’s nest location is a secret and approaching it is a crime.

  6. That second to last shot made me laugh out loud – soooo many funny captions leap to mind. Always interesting to see all the building skills and creativity in these Osprey nests. Pretty soon they will learn about brick and siding ha.

    • Thank you! I was wondering how I’d entwine that close-up shot in my ‘story’. lol Yes, great building skills, I laughed out loud about you saying brick and siding 😂

  7. Some of these facial expressions are priceless, Donna.
    While I admire the ospreys’ creativity in nest building, I always hate to see plastic bags and string in their nests, as I worry about suffocation and strangulation of both adults and nestlings. 🙁

    • Osprey are great for expressions lol. I do worry about all that plastic they pick up for nesting materials. I actually watched in horror of an Osprey having a plastic bag handle wrapped around its foot for a day; when it went in the water to get a fish (as if the bag was not attached), and entered the water, the bag filled and the Osprey could not lift out. It swam to the side and finally tore the darn bag off it. I was in a true panic, I was already trying to call someone to come help it. Trash is such a bad deal for all birds. 🙁

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