For a few weeks now, folks at Allan H Treman State Marine Park at the SW corner of Cayuga Lake, where I often walk and go birding, have been asking me, “When will the Ospreys come back?” I say I expect them around the last week of March, but it depends on when they decide to leave the Caribbean. Now it seems more likely they may arrive there sooner, because they have been arriving at other locations in the Cayuga Lake Basin.
This morning Dave Kennedy reported an Osprey to eBird from NYS-5/US-20 a half mile or more southwest of the entrance to the Montezuma NWR, and as should be done with all rare bird reports he included either a description of what he observed or a photo. Dave is a good photographer who spends a lot of time around the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, and he finds many first of year records for the Cayuga Lake Basin. His lovely photo clearly shows the Osprey on a nest. (However even an ugly photo can be good enough to ID & document a bird, so if you see something odd or new for the year or rare, I encourage you to pull out your phone and try to get a photo.) It’s good to have documentation of early arrivals because it may demonstrate that birds are changing their migration timing due to climate change. This winter has been almost nonexistent. Ann Mitchell wanted to see this early Osprey, and she invited me along. We didn’t check all the Ithaca or Lansing platforms, but as we went north on NYS-90 we noticed that all the Osprey platforms were unoccupied. We stopped in Union Springs to look for Bonaparte’s Gulls from Frontenac Park, because even though the lake was rough, the air temperature might make little shimmer, so maybe flying birds could be seen. She was looking for where to park so as not to use Town Office parking or block the boat ramp, and that had us facing south. Before we got out to look at the lake Ann noticed an Osprey ahead of us through the trees. It was carrying a stick, and it alit on the nest platform in the marina which used to be called Frontenac Harbor and apparently is now called FLX Marine. We drove around to get a photo to document this apparently equally early Osprey. And we talked to a guy who works there who said the Osprey arrived 2 days ago. And the workers there are well aware of the Ospreys. So that’s now the earliest documented arrival of which I’m aware. We reported it to eBird. We also saw the Osprey that Dave Kennedy photographed. Plus, from the East Road overlook above Knox-Marsellus marsh looking SSE over the forest Ann picked out a third Osprey with long narrow wings that were dark above but bright white on the wing linings and belly and flapping faster than a nearby immature Bald Eagle. - - Dave Nutter -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
