Ospreys, common as muck round here

I love birds of prey, seeing them fly, and soar, and dive. Back in England we would see the occasional red kite and often see kestrels hovering over the hedgerows as they looked for a snack. Here we see ospreys every day, I can see two nests from my front porch.

Osprey were almost wiped out 40 years ago by DDT but have returned in such numbers that there are over 200 breeding pairs in the Kawarthas.  Their preferred site for nesting would be at the top of a tall pine by the water but those are scarce so they try and make their nests on top of hydro poles. Bits of the nest hang down onto the wires and cause power outages so the hydro companies build platforms about 6 feet above the wires for the osprey to use.

This morning I drove into Peterborough along County Road 2 which runs along the north side of Rice Lake and on that drive I saw 6 occupied nests. An absolute delight to see them. Even more of a delight to see the birds flying over our front yard.