While filming PiPls, from high overhead came the shrilly distinct call of an Osprey. As majestic in flight as a Bald Eagle, he perused the beach and then circled back several times more. I wondered, is he coming for Piping Plover chicks or possibly the creche of Common Eider ducklings that was sweeping the shoreline for sea lettuce.
Creche of Common Eiders foraging for sea lettuce.
When I returned home I read Osprey pose very little threat to baby birds. Ninety-nine percent of their diet is fish and only rarely do they hunt other creatures, mostly when fish are not available. Commonly called Fish Hawk, Sea Hawk, and River Hawk, Osprey have evolved with such highly specialized physical characteristics to aid in hunting fish that they have been given their own taxonomic genus and family (Pandion haliaetus)
To learn more about Osprey, you may find John J. Audubon’s life history super interesting: Fish Hawk, or Osprey
Link to Essex Greenbelt live osprey cam: https://ecga.org/Osprey-Cam
Piping Plover chicks make easy targets for avian predators, but not Osprey 🙂
Good Morning Gloucester 