River Report: Osprey Parents Nest High Above the Cotee

From Mary O'Benar

COTEE RIVER OSPREYS: Ozzie and Harriet have lived high above the Pitlachascotee for well over a decade. This time of year you can usually see Harriet’s head up in the nest as she’s getting ready to lay eggs. They’ll hatch around the end of March. Although Ozzie helps, Harriet does most of the sitting. 

It’s amazing to spot Ozzie swooping into this very tall nest, always a perfect landing. Sometimes he’ll perch on another dead treetop to watch over their home. Once in a while there’s a little fight when the redwing blackbirds try to bother them.

Their nest is very easy to see; it sticks way up where the river bends around the private park at Colony Cove. These ospreys were named Ozzie and Harriet by Cove residents long ago because they’ve been such exemplary parents. Casual observation would indicate they’re highly successful at raising young.

They’ve been in this location at least 15 years. As ospreys go, they’re not spring chickens anymore. Ozzie and Harriet come back and fix up this same nest every year— it gets kind of ramshackle while they're 'vacationing' in Canada.  

We Floridians see ospreys every day, they nest on freeway lamp posts a lot because natural territories like our river are constantly being transformed into real estate. Ospreys hunt fish for a living, and they fish magnificently; any fisherman should be jealous.

But they need a lot of room to hunt. Grey Preserve’s 80 acres helps make them a secure home and good nursery, but Ozzie needs to range much farther than that. And this week a new osprey male is searching Grey Preserve looking for elbow room too. 

Pamela Buck is a longtime resident who had a hand in naming the birds. She has a perfect view of our ospreys’ nest. She tells the story of a bald eagle scaring Ozzie into dropping his fish in mid-air and many other dramatic sights. 
Ms. Buck reports that the birds showed up 2 weeks ahead of schedule this year, about December 23. She says Harriet arrived alone a couple days before Ozzie, reason unknown. They’ll depart in June, sometimes leaving a weaker chick behind but they raise such strong kids that the family group usually all goes together.

If you’d like an extremely close-up view of nesting raptors, Dunedin’s Osprey webcam is very good this year, go to: http://dunedinospreycam.org/  Bill Renc is a well-known Florida artist with a new Dunedin book coming out. He’s coauthor of the classic Florida birdbook, At Water’s Edge (1993, in City library). Renc has been observing the ospreys a long time.

Renc says: “I was watching the Osprey cam earlier today— the female was in the nest. The male was perched nearby, and he was doing the courting ritual. To attract the female and demonstrate his willingness, he will rock from side to side in a swaying motion. My wife said, ‘He looks like Stevie Wonder doing one of his songs.’"

Ozzie and Harriet don’t have a camera, but you can see them readily from public places. The view is perfect from the Grey Preserve boardwalk, You might be able to see the courting ritual, go to the boardwalk's second bridge. If Ozzie’s acting like Stevie Wonder, then you’re in luck, and so is he.

Submitted by Mary O' Benar. Cotee photos taken by Inge Bussman. Osprey face shot courtesy of Dunedin Osprey Cam.