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Members Shaun and Della Wakelen have recently returned from Florida with this account of one day in their life! The Floridian Ospreys
Well, back to Florida and off to our favourite beach at Boca Grande to see once again the pair of Ospreys that have built a nest over the beach. On arrival, there was one Osprey in the nest, apparently eating something, with another flying above and chasing off unwelcome birds. With Della still taking pictures of an injured Pelican further back on the beach, Shaun got himself into position to take some more shots, when suddenly a Pelican landed on the nest! Well, needless to say, the two Ospreys had other ideas and promptly started to attack the intruder.. With constant harassment, the two birds managed to pull the Pelican off the nest and then proceeded to drag him down to the beach ... where he landed with a bit of a thump The pelican then remained on the beach for quite a while, obviously stunned. But the Ospreys had other ideas and constantly buzzed him to try and frighten him off And was he after a fish which one of the Ospreys appeared to be eating? Not sure, but he may have been after something else in the nest, which we saw a little later. Now that it appeared to be safe, three little heads gradually emerged above the rim of the nest! What a sight! We weren’t expecting to see chicks this time of year, but to see three was a fabulous experience. They will probably be leaving the nest soon, if they haven’t done so already, as their flying feathers didn’t appear to be quite ready. Well, at least this explained why there was another injured pelican on the beach. Do they eat chicks? Not sure if we can top that one! (Sorry Ian, couldn’t resist posting this  ) |
