Community Corner
Ospreys Soon to Leave Cape Cod on Fall Migration
The birds arrive in our region in late March, begin nesting in April, fledge their chicks in July and August and depart for South America by the end of September, according to the Woods Hole Osprey Cam website.
They've been with us throughout the spring and summer: soaring high overhead, uttering their piercing calls, diving to snatch fish from beneath the waves and swooping to deliver it to their towering nests of sticks.
But soon, the ospreys will have turned their tails on Cape Cod and the Islands and their heads toward South America — though they might bring some local fish along on the first leg of their fall migration, says Suzan Bellincampi, director of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, the Mass Audubon center on Martha's Vineyard.
The birds arrive in our region in late March, begin nesting in April, fledge their chicks in July and August and depart for South America by the end of September, according to the Woods Hole Osprey Cam website.
A family of ospreys can eat four pounds of fish a day, and migrating ospreys often take fish with them on their long journey between North and South America, gripped in their barbed talons.
Strong wings allow the birds to emerge from beneath the surface of the water after they have dived in to catch a fish, Bellincampi said.
Ospreys are thriving after having nearly vanished from the area by the 1970s. Widespread use of DDT to control mosquitoes had had the unintended consequence of causing birds' eggs to have thinner shells, making them too fragile to hatch.
The 1972 DDT ban and a movement encouraging landowners to put up nesting poles have jointly led to a rebound in the birds' local populations, Bellincampi said.
Are you an osprey watcher? Why do you like these birds? Tell us in the comments.
