While we enjoy finding new birds for the first time, it's enjoyable to find a bird you can confidently recognize. In fact, the Ospreys at Cape Cod were the only raptors we saw the entire trip.
We would hear their distinctive call, then look up to find one soaring overhead with a fish in its talons. They carefully turn the fish into the wind so they don't interfere with efficient flight. Ospreys should be starting on their fall migration down the Atlantic coast any time now. I hope they don't get caught in any of the hurricanes brewing there.
Ospreys are tolerant of human presence, and don't mind nesting near people. They readily build on nesting platforms, or navigation buoys or even the parking lot lights at Walmart. Several large boats where parked on land near our Yarmouth condo units, and some enterprising Osprey had built a small nest on top of a platform on the boat. Don't know what it might be used for on the water, but it works fine as a nest platform.
On the marsh across the street from our condo, a pair of Ospreys had a large nest on a platform. They had no chicks by this time of year, but the male had just presented his mate with a fish. She stood on the nest to eat it, while he perched nearby preening his feather.
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