At Lakeshore Park in Roane County this afternoon I had some unusual encounters
with ospreys. It began when I got my scope from the car to look at a few
distant gulls. They were on a sandbar where large congregations of gulls had
been this winter. It is at the far end of the park out from the big parking
lot. By the time I returned with the scope the gulls were gone but I saw a
strange sight on the far side of the sandbar... two Osprey standing on a nest.
Now it's not unusual to see Ospreys standing on nests at this park but this
nest was not on a platform; it was on the water. So I'm thinking their nest
blew down (it was very windy) but from where? There are no trees or structures
anywhere close. Maybe it wasn't an Osprey nest at all but a Canada Goose nest
that was originally on dry land and got flooded?? I grabbed my camera; by the
time I snapped the photo one of the ospreys had left. I'll try to attach a
photo to this email but I don't know if that is possible.
Then I headed back toward the park entrance to check out the nest on the Osprey
platform near the island where all the cormorants and herons are nesting.
Eventually two Osprey showed up at that nest. Next I spotted a nest on a
platform out beyond that one and there was one Osprey on that one (this was the
first I had seen that nest; I don't think they had one there last year).
Finally I went to look at the Osprey nest at the other end of the park about a
quarter of a mile beyond the pedestrian bridge. It had a successful nest last
year. There were no ospreys in the vicinity and I eventually decided the nest
must have been abandoned but here comes an Osprey with a fish. The bird lands
on the nest, looks down into it and then leaves with the fish still in its
talons. The Osprey landed on a nearby small tree and proceeded to eat its meal.
Counting the Osprey I saw flying around not in the vicinity of any nest, I saw
7 ospreys but there's a good chance at least one or two were duplicates.
Carole Gobert, Knoxville
Attachment:
Osprey on nest on water.JPG
Description: JPEG image
