Sky, Osprey

The big sky at the edge of Brooklyn: Salt Marsh Nature Center at Marine Park.White Island, a work in progress, in the background. In yesterday’s strong wind, a lone Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) swept by several times, examining one of the nesting platforms. This bird probably very recently arrived from its South American “winter” home.

A male Osprey tracked by satellite to Colombia returned to Jamaica Bay this week after a 15 day trip. (This bird has been colonized with a human name — after the funder of the project, somewhat feudally — but I don’t believe we have any right to name wild animals, so I don’t repeat it here.)

Bob Kennedy, who is tracking this bird, is also tracking a Nantucket-nesting male osprey, who also “winters” on the north coast of Colombia. That bird also takes about two weeks to fly on its way north (and south). Some North American ospreys venture as far south as Patagonia.