Category Archives: Osprey

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Osprey at Assabet Reservoir in Westborough

July 14, 2008 – 8:31 pm

Despite hoping to spend a lot more time this year with the Osprey, my schedule and other circumstances simply hasn’t worked out so far — which kind of bums me out.  We made time on Saturday and headed over to Westborough, fingers crossed that the nest would turn out to be successful.   As I paddled over to the nest site it was ominously quiet, although it was in the morning and Osprey are not typically early risers.  I thought the original scene was three adults (which would be very strange), but it turned out that it was a juvenile on the nest and the adults were in adjacent trees.   About an hour later I noted signs of a second young one in the nest and once some wing-stretching started it was obvious they have raised two young birds to the brink of fledging.

I’m going to try to visit a couple of times a week through the fledging phase and till they head south.  This is the fun time to visit the nest.

Mostly bright clouds made for less than wonderful photos.  Another reason to start visiting at sunset.

A young Osprey pants under a summer sun.

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Sibling Osprey share an increasingly crowded nest

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An adult osprey joins the nestlings (I think this is the male, but I’m not 100% sure)

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By Dave | Comments (0)

Osprey Update

April 25, 2008 – 7:33 pm

Spent some time with the Osprey nests in Westborough and Acton, both times in the morning.

The pair in Westborough are building their nest and things seem to be going well there. I’m staying well away from the nest, but they were pretty relaxed even as I approached and set up my watching areas: no warning cries or visual signs of stress. That’s good.

I attempted some video shooting from the kayak. There was a slight breeze that made long shots pretty much unusable for presentation purposes (I’ll be interested if Final Cut Pro’s SmoothCam effect can deal with this at all.)

As I was starting to wrap it up for the morning, the breeze died down. Normally this would be something to look forward to, but the lack of wind was a signal for about a billion insects to fill the air. Aye! They were just gnats, who were not interested in my blood, but their appearance made leaving for the morning not that difficult a decision.

The next morning I headed over the Acton nest site — a bit later than I wanted to (about 30 minutes after sunrise). Not more than a few minutes after I arrived, the pair flew to the tower and mated! I just put the hammer down and hoped the camera’s buffer wouldn’t run out before the event was over!

Having solid ground under me for a change, I shot some video that I hope to include in my upcoming Assabet Osprey presentation to the Friends of Assabet River NWR next week. I wasn’t having much luck with capturing landings - they simply arrive so quickly and my vantage point provided about 2 seconds of lead time.

I did some establishment shots with a slow zoom and pan. My second one ROCKED because one of the birds flew off the nest just as the zoom ended. My first “wow” video moment.

By Dave | Comments (0)

First Osprey contact for the year

April 10, 2008 – 10:08 pm

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We’ve been receiving reports that the Osprey had returned to their nest in Westborough and have been itching to get out there and see them ourselves.  It has been a slow and bumpy start to Spring here in New England and we never seem to be able to synch up with the weather.  But yesterday it finally edged out of the 40’s and, despite an increasingly stiff wind, we headed out to the far side of the reservoir to see what was happening.

The Osprey pair have indeed settled in.  I managed to catch a shot of one of them grabbing a branch and bringing it to the nest.   Later one of the birds, presumably the male, delivered a fish as well.

All in all, a good start for these birds.

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My observation protocol keeps me a good distance away from the nest site during these early months.  Once the nest is established and occupied, we can test the waters for edging a bit closer.  Last year proved to be a big surprise in that the adults were extremely skittish (in past years they were always rather tolerant - leaving me to believe that at least one of the birds is new).

Between the wind and the lack of good light, it was no fun out there - but it was still great to get back on the water again after a long winter and we’re looking forward to many more visits.  (The forecast has the temperatures back into the 40’s again in a few days, so it’s not going to be a cake walk…)

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By Dave | Also posted in Staring | Comments (0)

Assabet Osprey Update

July 21, 2007 – 8:36 pm

Osprey - Assabet Reservoir, Westborough, Massachusetts

Last year the Osprey gave us both thrills and sadness. The thrills came from our discovering an active and productive nest on the Assabet River on the border between Acton and Concord. The sadness came from the failure of the nest in Westborough (for the second year running).

This year, both nests are back and active. We are hoping the best for the balance of the summer and we’ll keep our eye out for fledglings in August.

Our trips to the nests haven’t been as frequent as in prior years — something I will correct next year. One thing I noted this year in Westborough is that the female is extremely skittish. So I have received a lesson in not assuming anything about animal behavior: I approached the nest in the manner that I have done for the past 4-5 years and the female left the nest with the nestling in it. I’ve never seen the female abandon the nest like that. They “normally” will make threat calls (i.e., yell at you) until you retreat to what they consider a safe distance. The end result is that getting close to this nest, with the current occupants, will be much harder than it used to be.

By Dave | Comments (0)

Gil’s Legacy

March 21, 2007 – 9:03 pm

Osprey Platform, Westborough, Massachusetts
This is a photograph that owes its existence to possibly one person: Gil Fernandez.

In the early ‘70s, Gil (and his wife Jo) almost singlehandedly became responsible for the restoration of ospreys in Massachusetts. Decimated by DDT, the ospreys were down to a handful of nesting pairs. Gil built nesting poles. If an osprey started a nest on the marsh floor, Gil would build a nest platform right there. He was relentless in his support of these endangered birds. Thirty years later over 70 nesting pairs were on the Westport River and over 300 pairs across Massachusetts.

Gil died last month, a few days after his 95th birthday. When we were walking off the ice, after constructing this new Osprey platform in Westborough, I didn’t know that Gil had passed away just a few days earlier. Bill Davis was telling me stories of this guy, who into his 90’s would be visiting nest sites, removing material that would be dangerous to the chicks, and, in general, keeping an eye on the birds.

Without Gil’s passion for Osprey, I doubt that we’d have nesting pairs on the Assabet River today. I won’t look at these nests quite the same way again.

By Dave | Also posted in Environment | Comments (0)
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