Naturalist captures osprey in full dive for fish at Eden Mill

The following was written last Friday by Frank Marsden, a board member and naturalist at Eden Mill for 29 years.

I am having the most delightful dilemma this week, of what cool shots and events to share with you. I get so excited by what I get to see and than I cannot wait to share with you. Some weeks I want to send an e-mail every day. This week I had to decide to share an exciting moment full of action or an exciting moment full of a rarely seen species seen in this area.

After much debate, I decided on the full of action moment. I was exploring the edge of a small beaver pond that I recently discovered. I was walking through mud, briers and bugs, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a large shape flying near me. I looked up and about 20 feet from me was an osprey hovering over the pond. I swung my camera up just as he started to go into his stoop.

Within seconds, he hit the water (even splashed me), grabbed a fish, started flapping to pull his submerged body out of the water. He than flew parallel to me with the fish, and with a loud call, pulled up into the sky, circled me and headed off to enjoy his meal in as close by tree.

WHAT A MOMENT. Once I caught my breath, realized what I had just experienced, my thoughts went to my camera. I had instinctively just started snapping. Due to being so close, and using a 600 mm lens, I had a difficult time getting the action in the frame. No time to focus, just hope auto focus was working and some of the shots were in the frame and in focus. I struggled to pull my glasses out (old age), clicked on my camera to review the shots. At that point I truly disliked the tiny screen on the camera, but saw enough to have me run like a madman through a field, awkwardly fall over a fence, fumble with my keys, jump into my Jeep, speed home, trip over my dog, cuss that I had turned off my computer, but finally reviewed them on a large screen.

I think I was smiling ear to ear and got excited to share with you, and here they are. Seeing an osprey tells us spring is truly here. The osprey was affected by the same pesticide (DDT) that affected the bald eagle. In the early ‘50s to the ‘70s their numbers crashed. The DDT ingested by fish, the ospreys primary food source, caused the eggshells to be thin and crack when the adults were sitting on them in the nest. After the ban on DDT the populations rebounded. They lay one to four eggs, have one brood a year; incubation takes 36 to 42 days.

The next time you see that W shape in the sky, smile. Just think, there was a time we would rarely see this beautiful fisherman from the sky. OK everyone, get out and make your own adventure. Make sure you share this adventure with friends, neighbors, grandkids, everyone. Have a happy and exciting day. Frank

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