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Next time you’re driving along Hard Rd. by the Webster Highway Department, keep an eye on the sky and you might just catch a glimpse of one of the area’s most graceful residents: an osprey.

Ospreys are large members of the hawk family, with slender bodies measuring up to 24 inches, and long, narrow wings that can reach 71 inches across. They’re brown on top and predominantly grey underneath.

I recently got an email from Anne Clarkson, a school bus driver, who told me that for many years, a pair of ospreys has been nesting on the top of one of the communication towers located on the property line between the bus garage and the Webster Highway Dept.

Anne did such a great job of telling the birds’ story, that I’m reprinting her email pretty much verbatim. She wrote,

They first built their nest probably close to 10 years ago and have raised quite a few chicks over the years.  When the summer ends and the babies are flying, the whole family does what all ospreys in North America do — they fly to South America or the Caribbean for the winter!  Then in late April or so, they return and repair or rebuild their nest.  They are really amazing birds! 

Since they eat only fish, they can be seen diving into the lake and the bay (of course), but also in local ponds such as North Ponds and some of the ponds in local subdivisions.  When they have youngsters, you’ll see them flying back to the tower carrying a fish in their talons.  Unlike eagles who also catch fish that are at the top of the water, ospreys dive right down into the water — beak-and-feet first — and “fly” back up out of the water with their catch to a perch or to their nest.

As for info on our pair, I believe they first appeared in maybe 2013 or so.  I took a brief retirement from driving over parts of 2015-2016 and I know they were there before I left and I was ecstatic to see that they were still there when I returned!  They raised babies every year, but it’s almost impossible to know how many.  That tower is so tall and the babies are only flitting around in the nearby trees for a few days after they leave the nest and before they are out really flying with their parents.

Many of the drivers were concerned last spring when the renovation of our fleet parking lot began. Virtually all of the existing trees were bulldozed and the whole area was paved.  I assured the drivers that the birds would not care. They were very secure up on their tower, and since they don’t hunt in woods (they ONLY eat fish), they would not be affected at all by the noise and activity way down below them. Even the tower guys doing maintenance work on the tower, did not bother the ospreys. They just perched in different areas on the tower and periodically lifted off to circle the tower and/or change perching locations. Later in the year when the guys came along and tore down the massive nest, the birds were already on their way south. And, by the way, the logs used to build that nest looked a whole lot bigger when falling to the ground — especially with average-sized men standing right there tossing them down!

(The tower guys) always seem very careful and respectful of the birds… I would think that having a predatory bird with a wingspan of 5 feet or more quietly circling and watching as you work on ’their’ tower … could be a little intimidating. Or it could be the coolest thing they do all year — who knows?

Nonetheless, I was grateful and relieved when I heard and saw the birds returning this spring!  One interesting note about ospreys is that the older babies that have spent a few years in the southern oceans will accompany their parents back to their birthplace. This year, I saw at least four or five extra ospreys flying around the tower. It looked like a typical family reunion — lots of conversations and what looked like happy greetings before the ‘kids’ started flying off to other destinations.

Once they got settled and the ‘kids’ were off to their own new homes, it took the parents several days to build their new nest. It looks just as big as the last one! It’s pretty cool to watch them building it. They fly through the nearby woods and break off branches as they fly, carrying them back in beaks or talons (depending on size) and weaving them into their gigantic nest.

I would absolutely love it if we could get some entity (DEC?, WWF?, Seneca Park Zoo???) to install a webcam up there at the top of the tower so everyone could see just how cool these birds are. The one thing they do all day long that impresses me is their takeoff from the tower. They do not jump. They do not flap their wings. They simply open their wings and are lifted silently and effortlessly into flight. They also make the sweetest chirping sound when talking to each other. Very different from birds like crows or the typical screechy sounds expected of hawks or eagles.

And don’t get me started on their amazing hunting skills!  You can find lots of videos and still shots of ospreys literally diving underwater to grab a fish.  They are under the water long enough to make the average observer nervous for their well-being!  But these birds are so strong and so efficient they even catch the fish in such a way that it is oriented in line with the bird’s body with the fish facing forward for maximum aerodynamics when flying home.

Even though the tower is technically on the Highway Dept. property, and it’s the cell tower guys who bravely climb up to do maintenance (and every couple of years, remove the nest), we at the bus garage have kind of adopted them as “our ospreys.” 

Thank you, Anne, for this terrific story! (And thank you Jerry Salamone for the photos, from 2019.)

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(posted 6/19/2023)

Tags: Missy Rosenberry, Webster Central Schools, Webster NY