Chesapeake Ospreys in the Dumps

From the Virginia Mercury, Chesapeake Bay ospreys see worst breeding season on record. "Researchers point to food shortages as regulators consider reducing commercial menhaden harvests."

The reason behind the poor numbers: The birds are starving.

“They migrate all the way up thousands of miles from the Amazon basin. They come up here to breed, and they’re here at the nest and they sit there all season and don’t lay eggs,” said Bryan Watts, Director for the Center for Conservation Biology.

Watts said that among the chicks that do hatch, researchers are finding many abandoned in their nests and left to go hungry only a few weeks after being born.

“We have a site in Bowler’s Wharf,” Watts said. “We had 47 pairs there, so we should have 90-some adults. We went out there in early July, the peak of the breeding season, and we had eight adults.”

Watts said several factors can typically contribute to an osprey’s inability to lay eggs or keep a chick alive, including weather conditions, contaminants and human interference.

“But that’s really not what we’re seeing,” he said. “Those are minor contributors at this point. This is a Bay-wide thing that is due to food stress from low prey availability.”

Ospreys rely heavily on Atlantic menhaden for their diets. The oily forage fish is shrouded in politics.

Watts’ research points to a lack of menhaden in the Bay during critical times for the osprey breeding season. The Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission has debated whether commercial menhaden fishing should be reduced, limited to certain times of the year or subjected to other restrictions to allow more fish to migrate through the Bay.

FWIW, I saw more Ospreys today than I have all year. They were out flying over the Bay, sitting in trees and squawking. What I did not see, and this differs from most times, is a single one dive and catch a fish. Since the breeding females are supposed to be gone by now, I suspect what I heard was a lot of juveniles telling Dad they were hungry, and the Dads did not seem to be bringing home the bacon (Menhaden), whether out of inability to find some, or out of tough love. 'Come on, kid, I'm leaving in a few days, and then you're on your own for good.'