As cities get bigger and as suburbs sprawl, a lot of wild creatures have expanded their ranges into town (or gotten trapped in little remnant pockets). Duh: raccoons, possums, skunks, rabbits, and coyotes, old-school. Foxes, screech owls, and even otters and martens (up north) maybe a little more recently.

Screech by John Bradford

One that I find fascinating, perhaps because they’re frequent visitors around my totally non-waterfront suburban subdivision home, are ospreys.

by John Bradford

It has long been known that ospreys take okay to cities, but usually that means the birds nest on the shore among humans yet remain on the edge of the usual bodies of water where they fish. An osprey may nest in Stuart and still have a waterfront view to the big ol’ St. Lucie River.

But what I’m noticing are ospreys nesting in urban/suburban sites far from any expanse of “obvious nice fishing places.” Some seem to nest and hang out these days in “funny” (not ha ha funny) places. The one(s) that visit me like to perch atop a big ugly Norfolk Island Pine overlooking the drainage canal passing by. The canal spawns unlovely catfish and tilapia, and maybe the occasional Mayan Cichlid. Not a gourmet menu….but easily snatched from the foot-deep water.

Nest in upper right corner above stinkwater.

There are plenty of fish in the sea (and evidently in the canals), so what do ospreys compete with each other for? Maybe suitable nesting sites.

I do a bit of botanical snooping concerning weeds in relation to resilient gopher tortoises along a stagnant canal near home, between a huge urban golf course and a roaring RR track. Not very aesthetic setting, and the “seafood” is crummy. Along the way, though lives a beautiful family of ospreys bravely nested on a powerline pole among the insulators. Explain to me again why they don’t get electrocuted up there in the hotseat. I understand the safety of birds perching on a single wire, but the potentially soggy nest spans several wires, insulators, and the pole itself which is grounded. Kinda worrisome but they seem unconcerned.

Watch them feed the babies:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iVgjgE_aJUrVk63ISTdux-v6LuVaYFsm/view?usp=sharing

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