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Sanibel Island, Florida • www.ospreys.com March 2011

Over Half a Century Studying Ospreys: Dr. Paul Spitzer to Speak at Annual Meeting

Dr. Paul Spitzer will be the featured speaker at The International Osprey Foundation annual meeting on Sanibel March 27. His topic will be “My Life

with Ospreys, 1967 to the Present.” He will also discuss the osprey’s huge latitudinal breeding

range as far as the Caribbean. “From my first studies in the late 1960s, it was obvious to

me that ospreys were a triumph of the animal world, of avian evolution. Their rapid disappearance meant that something was terribly wrong, something outside of nature,” says

Spitzer, who lives in Trappe, Md. . “Since then, it has been my good fortune to document the effects of DDT,

proposed by Rachel Carson for my thesis work at Cornell, and to participate in the 40-year triumph of osprey recovery. Ospreys continue to be a core theme of my life as an ecologist, in diverse habitats, from North America to Belize to Baja. They were the making of me as an ecologist,” he adds.

The annual meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at The Community House, Periwinkle Way, with a short business meeting. All are welcome to attend. A $3 donation is asked of non-members.

Research GrantsThe International Osprey Foundation in 2009 awarded five grants each of $1,000. The recipients are:

Paul Spitzer, Trappe, MD, $2,000 to continue “Study and conservation of Ridgway’s Osprey, the distinctive white-headed Caribbean subspecies P.h. ridgwayi, in Belize.” Maria G. Bravo-Vinaja, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, Blacksburg, Va., $1,500 for “Assess the Geographic Distribution of Golden Eagles in Northwestern Mexico.” Jennifer Phillips, University of California-Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, Davis, Calif., $1,000 to help with dissertation on “How multiple Species of Birds’ Coloration, including Raptors, are affected by Humidity and Feather Degrading Bacteria.” Kathlene St. Clair-McGee, American Heritage Wildlife Foundation, Clark Ford, Idaho, $1,000 to help sponsor the American Heritage Wildlife Foundation.

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Chart by Edward J. Pelegrino • Photo by Jason Cheever NestsChicks Fledged

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Sanibel Island Osprey Population1979-2010Osprey

Update About 100 chicks were produced on Sanibel in the 2010 nesting season. Nest monitors reported between 98 and 102 chicks fledged as well as four eaglets.

There are also reports of three active eagle nests on Sanibel, at Wulfert Road, Gulf Pines and behind the Dairy Queen on Periwinkle Way.

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My family and I are fortunate to be able to visit the Sanibel osprey families 2-4 times a year. We were delighted to discover that the foundation is based on Sanibel. The sight of a fish-carrying osprey is always breathtaking. We love that The Sanibel School has platforms right in the parking lot - lucky kids, getting to watch the nests. It’s also great that there are nest-platforms on the power-lines along the highways. We were astounded to see the traffic-sign nest over Summerlin Road. My husband called the adjacent roadside nest their “mother-in-law suite.” Thanks for all you’re doing to help these magnificent birds!Susan Markowitz, Lahaska, PA

Osprey Recolonization in the UKAs part of an osprey recolonisation project in Southern England, UK, we are coming across people showing concern over the potential effect of ospreys flying close to breeding coastal waders and tern colonies. The concern being that ospreys may affect the breeding success of those populations.

The project is in the early stages of platform erection in the most suitable sites where ospreys have been seen to linger while on migration. However since ospreys have not bred along the south coast since 1570 (last documented record) we have no precedent to comment on intraspecific interactions. Roy Dennis has provided data on the Scottish situation, but I am now looking further afield for info. Any help on this would be much appreciated.Dr M Hinge, coordinator, South Coast Osprey Project TIOF RESPONSE: I know of no pertinent studies concerning indirect impacts of ospreys flying over wading birds. My only knowledge of interspecific

interaction is about competition over nest sites between ospreys and great blue herons and osprey defense of young in the nest against great blues. My personal experience, however, has been that flyovers by ospreys do not generally create much disturbance. I believe that since it would be a waste of energy to panic every time an osprey flew over since it eats primarily fish and I find that most birds are pretty good “birders,” i.e. an eagle flies over and the birds panic, but not with an osprey. The evolutionary pressure would be to panic when a REAL predatory threat arrives, not when a perceived threat from a human perspective passes through the area. I did just have a thought, however. In Florida, ospreys are very common and the wading birds have been habituating their whole lives to osprey feeding behavior. In Southern England, the wading bird populations have had little experience with ospreys. If there is no instinctive bias of the wading birds to perceive the silhouette of the osprey as a predator; however, I still believe that the wading birds would fairly quickly habituate to the ospreys being in the area.Mark Westall, TIOF Project Director

Thanks for platform assistance For myself, Gay Taibbi and Wendy Merritt, thank you for helping us have an osprey platform installed near us. The ospreys have produced a single male fledgling. We feel like the young male osprey is one of our immediate family! Of late they, all three of them, have from time to time taken up roost on the platform nesting area you helped us have installed in front of our residence by LCEC.Gary Taibbi, Sanibel

NOTE; TIOF helped with the installation of this platform on Periwinkle Way, near Gramma Dot’s restaurant on Sanibel.

Constructing the platform

Platform plans a great helpI’m writing to thank you for making your osprey nesting box plans available for downloading. I provided them to my marine contractor and he thought they looked great. He added some pickets around the nest to help secure the sticks and to give mom and dad a place to get away from the little screechers.Your plans were used for two nesting boxes here in Duck. Note the branches the contractor put in the box.David Bishop, Currituck Sound, Duck, NC, on the Outer Banks.

NOTE: nesting platform plans are available at www.ospreys.com

Strange behaviorHope everyone is doing well. KEEP, Inc. has its Lake Barkley Osprey cam on line again this nesting season at http://keepky.org/index.html Each day about 4,000 images are recorded for review. After several years of nesting images this is the first time this behavior has been observed and photographed. Does anyone know for sure what the adult male is doing in this photo? Ed Ray, Lake Barkley, Ky.

NOTE: My guess is he was scratching his head... possibly trying to get at feather mites? Interesting behavior.Mark “Bird” Westall, TIOF Project Director

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Sanibel NestWatchersEvery two weeks in the winter, rain or shine, TIOF NestWatch volunteers monitor each nest in their territory to get a count on how many chicks are in the nest and how many survive and learn to fly. It gives a constant snapshot of the health of this bird and the surrounding waters from which it feeds. Seven nestwatch groups check 132 osprey nests. Some have as many as 17 members, others as few as one. If you would like to join one of the smaller groups, call coordinator Debbie Friedlund at (239) 472-6667.

To apply for a TIOF grant

Please write a letter explaining in detail what you plan to do, where it will be done, who will be involved and when you plan to do the education campaign. We are always interested in knowing the estimated cost of the project and whether it is a one-year or multi-year project and what the other funding sources might be. The more you tell us about your project and your advisors, the higher the probability of receiving the grant. Mail applications to: The International Osprey Foundation ATTN: Endowment Fund PO Box 250 Sanibel, FL 33957-0250 Applications must be submitted by January 31, 2012.

Life MembersMr. and Mrs. Porter GossDr. Eugene MajerowiczHarvey RothsteinCharles RubrightJim Fowler, San-Cap Nature CalendarMs. Margaret SmithMrs. Carmen SanchezMr. and Mrs. William AlquistDwight AndersonMr. and Mrs. David LaddJames and Martha KannryRobert and Rita SouthernRJW FoundationBrenda and Sam TischlerDon ScottTim and Carol GardnerDavid LovelandDick PreservatiDr. Jorge and Sofija Galante

TIOF BoardTim Gardner, PresidentAnne Mitchell, Vice President and Newsletter EditorInge Glissman, Treasurer/SecretaryMark “Bird” Westall, Project DirectorJerry Nickerson, WebmasterDebbie Friedlund, Volunteer CoordinatorHartley Kleinberg

Cool WebcamThis summer, check out the activities at a Wilmington, N.C. nest by logging onto http:/home.roadrunner.com/~ospreynest TIOF member Jim Teachy has informed us of this webcam.

Open WideSparky Jones from Dunedin

Osprey Cam Watchers sent us this photograph taken from the ground by Barbara Walker.

To log onto the nest cam, go to www.DunedinOspreyCam.org.

The photograph was taken at their end-of-watch party last year for Group B, which consists of 14 people. From left at front: Maree Elowson, Grace Mannix, Kay Strong, Inge Glissman; standing: Debbie Friedlund, Linda Hooper, Bill Cross, Erhard Joeres, Henry Glissman, Charlotte Baker. Part of team but not pictured: Ruthie Kitchin, Nancy Clark, Sheila Maffei and John Mannix.

Fort Myers Beach NestWatchersJune Franklin and Sandy Ent began monitoring osprey nests at Fort Myers Beach in 2010. Last year they reported 12 active nests with 19 chicks. “We monitor 23 by car and 9 by boat,” said Franklin.

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T-ShirTS AvAilAbleOur popular T-shirts in white, 100% cotton, feature a large osprey head in brown with yellow eye. Price is $15 each, including shipping.

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_________Please enroll me as a member of TIOF_________Please renew my membership in TIOFCheck Membership Category:

_____ 6. Donor $250

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_____ 8. Student (to Under- graduate level) $8

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MAIL TO: TIOF, P.O. Box 250, Sanibel, FL 33957, USA