Summer Beaches and Aquatic Hawks

If vacation this year takes you to Cape Cod, the Rhode Island Shore, Coastal Maine or New Hampshire you have a good chance of catching site of New England’s “aquatic hawk”. No typo here, the Osprey is a fish hunting raptor the size of a large Red-tailed hawk. It is common to the salt marshes, inlets, and broken coast line of the entire eastern U.S. and can even be found inland nesting around beaver ponds and large bodies of water. Endemic to both the new and old world, the singly named Osprey is a champion of the environmental work to limit pesticide use, specifically DDT which was linked to thin egg shells and subsequent population decline of the 1960s and 70s.

Today Ospreys are again in healthy numbers and glide over open water and coastlines on slightly dipped down wings, pausing to hover above a fish, and then with wings pulled back and talons outstretched, plunge into the water piercing its unsuspecting prey. This hunting method is unique to Ospreys and makes them easy to identify but, when Ospreys are not actively hunting they have the ability to shape shift making them harder to identify. In flight the Osprey can at once look thick and muscular like a Bald eagle with primary wing feathers (“fingers”) outstretched or diminutive and flappy like a slender-winged Herring gull. The signature “M” shape is a helpful visual clue in identifying these fish eating hawks. The Osprey’s wings both curve down when viewed head on as well droop back when viewed from underneath, in both cases giving them a curvy “M” shape. Watch for these amazing aquatic hunters on your next trip to the shore or lake. 

Birds have wings and they use them and Getting a better view

“Birds have wings and they use them” was the Zen Koan of my mentor Nancy. It is a statement so obtuse that it literally shakes the reader out of a slumber – as any good Koan should. Birds do not queue up in perfect light, perched in side profile with head held high, prey in mouth, feathers preened. In reality birds wobble under bushes, dart behind trees, and dive under water. Simply put, birds have wings and they use them.

As summer yawns long days full of haze and heat and the trees are all leaves and light finding a tiny bird can seem increasingly difficult. One trick for finding tree-buried birds goes against our natural stalking instinct. When the sound or movement of a bird can be seen mid to high up a tree it is often better to circle the tree in a steady circumference rather than actually walking up to the tree. While it would seem natural to get “closer” to a bird to see it, walking up to the trunk of the tree often makes it more difficult. The bird is suddenly at a higher angle, harsher on the neck, and is now above even more limbs and branches. If a bird is nesting in the tree the presence of a predator at the tree’s base may also flush the bird. 

Instead, walk a slow circle around the tree, holding a steady radius from the trunk. This allows small holes to open up, like some cosmic alignment, between the leaves and branches while the bird retains it’s height in the tree so we don’t loose sight. Also, by circling the tree towards the sun’s position, it is often possible to get the bird into “goodlight” by putting ourselves between the sun and bird. 

While this trick doesn’t always work and the bird may go unseen or even fly off practice Nancy’s mantra, “birds have wings and they use them” and you will find some semblance of peace.