To continue the Osprey dialogue. While in Florida in March visiting family and a few wildlife refuges we ran into a pair at Ding Darling NWR (Southwest Florida coast) that were up to their bellies in shallow water shuffling their feet, which felt pretty unusual. After a few minutes they took off separately and circled. When they passed the area where they had been shuffling through they dropped and dragged their feet, picking up the matted grass and algae in their claws that they had dislodged which had floated to the surface of the water. They then flew to a nearby nest with full claws where they used the matted mess for lining, I presume. This happened a number of times over the hour we watched. I would presume this is normal behavior for Ospreys but we've never seen it before in our 40 years of birding.


David Gluckman
811 22nd St.
Pt. Townsend, WA 98368
360 379-0360