Fish Hawks

There was an Osprey carrying a long streamer of nesting material flying up the creek this morning. What is a Weesuck Creek fish hawk doing working on a nest in mid June? The answer to the question lies in the fact that this bird was flying 'up the creek' and away from the long-established nest in the Pine Neck marsh just barely visible beyond land's end opposite us. The bird with the nesting material disappeared into the woods somewhere around Little Weesuck, a side creek that flows into the main creek from the east side. A few minutes later, another bird was heard calling and seen soaring over the creek and flying up to a perch in the Pine Neck woods.

A quick check of the existing Osprey nest revealed a bird flying to the nest and landing on the edge while yet another was standing guard on a nearby dead stub. This nest -- which was originally in a dead pine right on the creek opposite our shore -- was moved onto a pole in the Pine Neck marsh a number of years ago. It is a huge mass, built up over the years, and is visible from our side but it is far and the details of Osprey family life thereunto are now much more difficult to observe. Still, from what I could make out, the bird on the edge of the nest appeared to be tearing at a fish held in its talons and feeding bits to unseen nestlings hidden in the thick bowl of the giant stick nest. If I have figured all this out correctly (I need to put a spotting scope on the nest or, better yet, to pay a visit to the Pine Neck Preserve to double-check), the old nest has an established pair and they have hatched out young which they are feeding.

Not too long ago, I reported on calling, courting Ospreys active over our house and over the creek. As I noted at the time, this activity seemed to me to be very late in the season and I was speculating that the local Osprey had lost their first brood and were trying to renest (possibly even re-pair). But now it seems that there is a simpler explanation: a second pair of Osprey on the creek! They are probably young birds -- perhaps a yearling couple that have just paired and are building a nest at the base of Pine Neck. If this is correct, they are probably too late to raise a brood this year. But it is not uncommon for young birds (birders and ornithologists call them first-year birds but this is really their second summer) to establish a pair bond and build a practice nest (or get a head start on building a foundation for their eventual home nest) in the spring and summer of their second year. Osprey are not terribly territorial, at least in their nesting sites; a century ago or more, Gardiners Island was said to have had over 100 nests, some quite close together.

There are now quite a number of Osprey nests around Shinnecock Bay and some of them are quite far inland (there is an active nest on the big communications tower in moraine just south of Sunrise Highway, Rt. 27, between the Quogue and Hampton Bays exits). One can only hope that fish stocks in the bay remain robust enough to support all these fish-eating hawks.

Eric Salzman