An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
By Glynn Wilson –
DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. – The annual spring bird migration is in full swing along the Alabama Gulf Coast, as well as the spring mating season for North American raptors like this osprey [Pandion haliaetus], unique for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them.
These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT in the early 1970s after President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the online bird guide at Cornell University, but now face risks from climate change due to the mismanagement of the agency by Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier appointed by President Donald Trump.
“Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons,” the Cornell bird guide says. “Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming.”
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
An osprey fishing in Galliard Lake on Dauphin Island, Alabama, April 19, 2018: Photo by Glynn Wilson
Range: Resident to long-distance migrant. Most Ospreys that breed in North America migrate to Central and South America for the winter, with migration routes following broad swaths of the eastern, interior, and western U.S. A few Ospreys overwinter in the southernmost United States, including parts of Florida and California.
