Osprey Spring Cleaning and Fishing

Anytime we have to travel north from Key Largo we stop at the place where we know we can see an osprey nest. Last year we watched some little ones that were hatched grow and get ready to leave the nest by the time we were leaving our southern nest for home. This year our first few bypasses made us think momma osprey was sitting on some eggs but we haven't seen any snowy heads popping up in the middle of the nest. What we did see this time past was some spring cleaning being done.

I thought at first she had a fish in her mouth and might be feeding some little ones but when I blew up the picture, I could see no little ones and there was a twig in her mouth. She was either remodeling the nest or doing some spring cleaning. Don't know that we'll see little ones this year. We'll keep looking though.

Another osprey that hangs our closer to our condo has a favorite fishing spot right in the little harbor the dock area creates. I was on the dock fishing one day and heard a big splash when I turned around, I saw the osprey taking off from out of the water. He shook himself as he was flying as a dog might do when it gets wet and continued on. I didn't get out my phone to take a picture because I figured he was gone. A few minutes later, I heard another splash and sure enough, he had dove in again. He didn't have any more luck than I did that morning though.

I did see him fly by on another occasion with a fish in his talons. And several mornings now I have seen him on his perch near the water waiting for his moment to swoop down. There is a tall palm tree near the water's edge and he surveys the fishing possibilities from there. I'll stick to fishing from the dock though.