Osprey (Florida - November 2013)

I’m still savoring the trip to Florida last November. Ospreys are the thread I’m pulling today. There were a lot of them at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  Ospreys were easy to spot on the electric lines because they looked different than the other two birds that also enjoyed the high vantage point:

The ospreys were larger than the kestrels;

The white on their head and breast contrasted with the dark forms of the vultures.

The talons on these birds are large, like all raptors; they suit the life of the fish hawk - swooping down to grab fish from the surface of the water.

I had never seen ospreys before I moved to Virginia and Maryland. Thirty years ago they were not as numerous as they are now. The parks that were near marshy areas provide nesting platforms for them…and occasionally there is one with a nest. When we went to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge last May there was one with a nest (with eggs or chicks because the bird stayed at the nest and a mate came to help with other birds were approaching too close.