Have you had a chance to check out the nest cam for the osprey nest in Seaside, Oregon? Check out https://www.seasideosprey.org/
Last week three eggs hatched and we have enjoying watching patiently as the new arrivals grow and get stronger.
Did you know???
- Ospreys usually mate for life
- In Buddhism, the osprey is sometimes represented as the “King of Birds”
- The osprey is the provincial bird of Nova Scotia, Canada.It is also the official bird of Södermanland, Sweden.
- Female osprey only lay once a year, with one to four eggs in their clutch.
- Osprey have a distinct smell. It is not from the fish they catch, but from the oils that keep their plumage in its impeccably water-resistant condition. Ospreys are the only bird of prey that regularly dive into the water.
Why do the osprey need our help?
Ospreys became a species of concern for conservationists across the nation and in Oregon during the 1970s. Widespread applications of the pesticide DDT over the 1950s and 1960s, led to its pervasive presence in the environment. Ospreys, at the top of the aquatic food chain, accumulated large amounts of DDE, the chemical that DDT breaks down to in the environment, in their bodies. This led to eggshell thinning and breaking, which caused a dramatic decline in osprey populations by the 1970s. DDT was banned in 1972 and osprey populations have steadily rebounded in Oregon and elsewhere in the nation, albeit in some areas populations remain scarce.
https://www.seasideosprey.org/
http://www.oregonwild.org/wildlife/osprey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey