Hi Penny and everyone,
Your post reminded me of my favorite image of an Osprey conducting nest building (actually remodeling in this case).? I take an annual Deschutes River float trip each year, and the Deschutes is bursting with Osprey - more birds and more nests each year, to the point that one wonders if there are any additional territories available.? There is an active Osprey nest very close to our primary camping spot on the trip.? The pair in that nest have fledged either two or three offspring each year for at least the last four years.? I've shot a ton of images of both the young and the adults.? The following link shows one taking what appeared to me to be a 'lazy man's load' back to the nest.?
http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=2624962&cat=38975
Besides being amazed at the size of this nest addition, I had to wonder where on earth the bird found it.? The Deschutes is high desert canyon with sage steppe habitat and about 12 inches of rain annually.? The only trees are scattered junipers (and?the occasional out-of-place ?Ponderosa Pine ) on the canyon slopes, and the trees in the narrow riparian zone by the river.? Unfortunately I did not hang around to watch the construction process the bird used with its find.?
John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Penny Koyama" <plkoyama at verizon.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:44:22 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Re: Am. Kestrel pair in Mill Creek/Osprey
Tweets,
In addition to about 40 species of birds (including in the nearby neighborhood)?on Sat a.m.?I saw an amazing occurrence at North Creek Park.? An Osprey (my FOY) was cruising along, then went into a stoop.? I watched, wondering where the fish was it might be aiming for, but instead it hit hard at a tree branch,?busting it off and carrying it away in both talons.? I guess I never thought about how/where Ospreys scored all of those "nest sticks," but this, at least, is one of their techniques.
There were 3 eagles out and about and no GBHs on the nests, and the field on the Mill Creek end of the trail was alive with American Pipits.? Least Sandpipers were working the mud at that end of the trail, too.
Penny Koyama, Bothell
plkoyama at verizon.net
----- Original Message -----
From: jmy09 at aol.com
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 3:57 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Am. Kestrel pair in Mill Creek
It is a great park!
There is a Great Blue Heron rookery here, also. There are five or six nests and there had been
three pairs of herons in early March. (I had heard from another birder that the Bald Eagle had decimated the eggs in the nests the last couple of years.) I was gone for a month and when I returned last week there were no herons around. I watched the nests for an hour, then saw the Bald Eagle land on one of the nests. I am not sure if the Eagle has now claimed the nest for him/herself or if there were eggs that fell to the same fate as in the previous two years.
There are Barn Owls in the barn at the south end of the park and an American Bittern was seen in one of the ponds last week. (I heard him yesterday)
Janis in Mill Creek Snohomish Co.
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