It was an early morning high tide at Horseshoe Cove in Sandy Hook Bay, NJ. Off in the distance were the fading nighttime lights of New York City's boundless array of buildings and bridges stretching from Queens and Brooklyn to Staten Island. Except for the occasional downstream flow of wake here and there from outgoing fishing boats, the surface of the water was calm.
There I was, just loitering around at water's edge, enjoying a beautiful September day along the estuary. All of sudden a huge bird flapped overhead. There was just enough early morning sun emerging over the horizon to see a long wingspan. But it was the distinctive white head with a black face stripe around its eyes that gave the bird away.
It was an Osprey or a "Fish-Hawk" as it is also known since this bird-of-prey feeds primarily on fish. Suddenly no fewer than four Ospreys were flying over the bay. Each and every one foraging for breakfast.
The Ospreys seemed to be targeting spots, a common estuarine fish that is part of the family of fish commonly called drums or croakers. I could clearly see in the Osprey's talons a forked tail fin and the outline of a rather compressed body. But the give-away was the distinct dusky black "spot" just behind the top of the gill opening on the fish's body. There must have been a school of spots feeding in the shallows of the bay on worms, small crabs, or mollusks. Yet, instead of being a predator today, the fish found themselves being the prey.
The Ospreys would soar 60 to 100 feet above the shallow waters of the bay, often circling high above. Then when a fish was spotted, an Osprey would pull back its wings, tilt their tails up and their heads down; and plunge into the water feet first with needle-sharp hooked talons to catch a fish from the bay's turbid waters. The Ospreys were not always successful, but they were tenacious. Eventually each bird catching a fishy morning meal.
To my surprise, though, looking through binoculars I discovered that not one of these Ospreys were adults. Each one was an immature bird. In place of dark feathers on the back, young Ospreys have a mix of pale brown and whitish feathers with orange-yellow eyes, compared to all yellow eyes for adults.
All the Ospreys I saw were young-of-the-year juveniles, hatched this spring atop nesting platforms and fledged around Sandy Hook Bay during this summer. The youthful birds being part of the multitude of immature Ospreys found in Lower New York Bay and surrounding waters each summer and early fall.
Gone were their parents. Mom and dad were nowhere to be seen or heard. In all likelihood, the parents had already embarked on their migration down south for the winter, leaving the offspring to mature and continue learning about the art of fishing on their own.
Although many people would like to think that all juvenile birds grow up in a family that lives together and migrates together, this isn't really true. A good number of young birds, including Ospreys, are entirely on their own soon after they able to fly and acquire their own food. Mom and dad in the bird world nurture their offspring only until the kids are able to feed themselves, then their role as parents is complete..
Sometime in August, mother Osprey will typically migrate first, becoming less and less of a presence around the nest before finally taking off by herself. Father Osprey will remain a few days or weeks behind to help the young become truly independent hunters. By early September, most if not all resident Ospreys parents will have left the nest, migrating south well before their offspring.
Ultimately, the young Ospreys will be on their own to polish their flying and foraging skills and to increase their energy stores before starting a long winged journey single-handedly down south. The young Ospreys will amazingly have to fly thousands of miles to a place in the tropics they have never been before unaided by their parents, a map or a chart.
How do young Ospreys know when to migrate and where to go. Also, how do the immature birds know at what time they have arrived to a place they have never been to in the past? While there are lots of theories, there are not a lot of answers. Migration is still a mystery. Instinct, almost certainly, plays a big role. A sixth sense that will tell the inexperienced birds to move southward.
Previous scientific studies by wildlife biologists have at least revealed an Osprey's general flight path. Satellite radio-tracking devices on migrating Ospreys have shown the birds will follow the sun, stars, and coastline of North American to the tip of Florida, then cross the Straits of Florida to Cuba before heading east to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From there, young Ospreys will usually fly 500 miles over open water to winter in northern South America, in places along rainforest rivers and lakes into the Amazon Basin ranging from Brazil, Venezuela, or Columbia. It's more than a 3,500 mile journey, perhaps as much as 5,000 miles depending on which route a particular young Osprey may take. These young-of-the-year birds will then typically spend 18 months in South America before making their return migration northward. A long journey to adulthood that begins right here in New York Harbor.
The vast resettlement of young Ospreys from North American to South American is not easy. Many juvenile Ospreys will get lost or wander in unsafe areas. Some Ospreys will be shot and killed by people who own fish farms in Latin America and South America. Collisions with vehicles and power-lines are also horrible sources of mortalities.
The good news is that Osprey numbers in both New York and New Jersey are increasing and individuals are returning to formerly vacated breeding grounds, as well as expanding into new areas around Lower New York Bay including in Coney Island, Jamaica Bay, and Raritan Bay. For whatever the reason, Ospreys have figured out how to thrive in close proximity to human kind.
Restoration efforts in floodplain areas and near coastal waters, as well as the construction of artificial nesting platforms by conservation groups and volunteers, have all helped in the Osprey’s recovery and have provided safe nesting locations. Of course there is still more work to be done to clean up local waters and restore habitat for this beautiful fish hawk to endure.
If you would like to volunteer your time in helping to bring back the Osprey population to Lower New York Bay and surrounding waters including Sandy Hook Bay and Raritan Bay, please consider contacting the following organizations:
In New York City, the best place to reach out for all things birds is New York City Audubon. Check out their website to be part of a migrating hawk watch team at: http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/
For the past several years, Ben Wurst, Habitat and Program Manager for the non-profit Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, has been doing a wonderful job in restoring degraded wildlife habitat and managing the Osprey population in New Jersey, including helping volunteers raise nesting platforms. To help, you can contact Ben through the foundation's website at: http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/
For more information, pictures and year-round sightings of wildlife in or near Sandy Hook Bay and Lower New York Bay, please check out my blog entitled, Nature on the Edge of New York City at http://www.natureontheedgenyc.com
