It’s the ultimate harbinger of spring on the Chesapeake—the chirping call of ospreys, returning to their nests from winter vacations in Central and South America.
All within the last few days, ospreys have appeared in waterways from the Severn River to the Potomac. The humans who follow the osprey nesting season year after year have been anxiously waiting for them.
The Patuxent River’s first osprey appeared March 1, the meteorological first day of spring. The Annapolis Maritime Museum reports that “their” osprey pair, nicknamed Wilma and Lee (after the historic skipjack Wilma Lee) returned to the nest this week. Bay photographer David Sites has been boating nearly every day this winter, and he spotted his first osprey Monday on the South River.
A beloved osprey couple who nests on a pole at Severna Park High School, in the Magothy rivershed, has also returned. “Ophelia and Oscar”, who have their own web livestream, have been seen gathering sticks and twigs and sharing a nice fish. Community members are scrambling to organize litter pickups in the area to keep the ospreys from finding harmful trash (plastic, twine, even clothing) and using it in their nest.
On Kent Island, Chesapeake Conservancy’s ospreys, Tom and Audrey, have not yet returned to their platform. Viewers of their popular Explore.org webcam are taking turns predicting when they’ll arrive.
Colonial Beach, Virginia, has an osprey couple of its own, nicknamed Tony and Maria, after the West Side Story characters. Wildlife photographer Bobby Hooker was relieved to finally see the ospreys return, almost three weeks later than last year.
Colonial Beach is one of a few Chesapeake Bay towns that hold entire festivals celebrating the osprey. On April 12, the town hosts the Virginia Osprey Festival, put on by the Virginia Osprey Foundation. With the Potomac River as the backdrop, visitors will hear from a professional photographer who specializes in ospreys, learn from conservationists, and take part in plenty of other springtime osprey-related activities.
One week earlier, on April 5, the town of North Beach, Maryland, holds the Maryland Osprey and Nature Festival. It includes live raptor demonstrations, talks, and kids’ activities. The event raises funds for wild bird rescuers and other organizations.
What is it about ospreys that inspires people to name them, hold festivals for them, and get so invested in their osprey relationships? Greg Kearns, Principal Park Naturalist at Patuxent River Park, has been studying the birds for nearly 50 years. He believes people are so captivated because ospreys are a charismatic species who love to chatter. They’re more human-tolerant than, say, bald eagles, so we get to see more of them.
The ospreys certainly make it easier to observe them by building nests in busy, high-traffic areas. Navigational markers in the water are popular spots, as are cell towers and light poles. Ophelia and Oscar’s Severna Park platform is right along a busy road, visible to any driver passing by.
Another appeal for people who track osprey pairs all season long is the potential for drama. Ospreys typically mate for life, but in some seasons, an osprey nest is challenged by an interloper. Even if an osprey couple successfully lays eggs, there’s no telling how many of the eggs will hatch safely, and if the chicks that do survive will fledge.
Kearns says for those watching ospreys on web cams, it can be hard to see the ups and downs of life in the nest. “I get more calls about them than any other bird. People are so concerned about them.” He reminds people that they are witnessing a window into the birds’ lives, and he won’t always intervene when nature takes its course. He maintains a total of 72 nest platforms on a 12- to 13-mile stretch of the Patuxent.
If you’re an osprey watcher, how do you tell the difference between Tom and Audrey, Tony and Maria, or Ophelia and Oscar? According to Heather Jeweler, one of the osprey advocates behind the Severna Park nest cam, “Females have a brown speckling across their chest referred to as a “necklace” and males tend to have a completely white chest (some individuals can have a few speckles).” But to track individual birds from year to year is challenging. “It can be difficult, if not impossible, to tell individuals apart as field markings are so similar…unless there’s a very obvious color pattern difference or a scar,” Jeweler says.
All of the attention from amateur naturalists following the ospreys is a positive thing, Kearns says. “It’s a way to foster better awareness,” he says, and inspire people to take initiative in conservation. Each year, Patuxent River Park holds osprey-banding research tours, in which volunteers are able to hold the birds and help tag them for tracking. The trips are virtually sold out for this summer already. “It’s the most popular thing the park does,” Kearns says. “Studies like this are really what get people excited.”
Chesapeake Bay Magazine got to ride along on Kearns’ osprey banding trip with volunteers a few years ago, and the bird banders found the experience very special.
Kearns says the public’s involvement is so important because, for the first time since the 1970s, some parts of the Bay are seeing a decline in successful osprey nests. Kearns is working with Dr. Bryan Watts at the College of William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology to help gather research on the success of nests in the Patuxent. A study last year brought up a possible link between osprey starvation and availability of menhaden in high-salinity waters. Researchers want to know more about any possible link between menhaden abundance and osprey health. Watts is calling upon Kearns and others all over the Bay to gather more data.
Kearns says ospreys are a strong indicator of Bay health, a litmus test of sorts, so it’s important to study them closely. As the days get longer and the water temperature warms, we can expect more ospreys to return and begin nesting. Eggs could appear in nests as soon as early April.
If you want to dig deeper into the state of Bay ospreys, Kearns will hold a virtual talk on these fascinating birds and how the population is doing on Tuesday, March 18 at 7pm. It’s part of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s 60 anniversary webinar series. You can sign up for the webinar ahead of time.
