Mike Powell

There was a lot of activity at one of the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) nests last Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. When I first noticed the nest, there were a several Osprey sitting in the nest—initially I thought there were only two in the nest, but when I looked more carefully, I could see that there were at least three osprey there.

As I watched, another osprey flew into the nest as you can see in the first photo below. The nest does not appear to very large, so the the birds had to rearrange themselves a bit to accommodate the new arrival. In the second photo, one of the osprey seemed to be expressing its displeasure with the need to move a bit.

I think this may be a family unit, though I can’t be absolutely sure of that. When I look closely at the eyes of the osprey, some of them appear to be orangish in color, unlike the paler eyes of adults.

I especially love the body language in the second photo. It’s fun to imagine the conversation that is taking place. Perhaps, for example, the osprey with the flapping wings is complaining that the newly arrived osprey did not have a fish in its talons to share with the rest of the family. What do you think?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.