Good morning,

Elizabeth (Betty) Boyd wrote:

> Now, my question: Do osprey eat other prey besides fish?????????

According to Alan F. Poole in his book "Ospreys, A Natural and Unatural
History" (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989) Ospreys, with rare
exceptions, catch and eat live fish (99% of the diet of every Osprey
population studied to date). Unusual prey items include conch (one
individual dropped shells from up high and ate mollusks within), alligator,
snakes, aquatic mammals, voles, squirrels, and even birds. Poole adds that
"many such records are questionable, however. Ospreys regularly scavenge
carcasses for nesting material, so they need not have killed everything that
they carry or all that one finds at their nests."

So the answer to the question is: possibly.

Martin Muller, Seattle