A Tropical Osprey for the Tropical Ospreys

 I'm sure all Stockton have at least a general idea of what our school mascot is, the coastal raptor known as the osprey, however I'm willing to bed a large percentage of students haven't seen much less come close to meeting one. Luckily for the students on this trip, we had taken a quick stop at the Crane Point Hammock Museum and Nature Center located in Marathon Florida. Crane Point hammock has many attractions such as nature trails, fish pedicures, a small museum, and a lagoon, however the most important part of this park for our purposes is the wild bird center. The Marathon Wild Bird Center has been a rescue hospital since 1995 and has helped rehabilitate and release over 16,000 wild birds back into the wild.

Luckily at the time of our visit this rehabilitation center was currently holding and helping an osprey.

The osprey is a large bird of prey found across North America; however, it tends to stick to coastlines and is only seen in central North America during migrations. This bird can reach a length of 22-25 inches and a wingspan of 4 to 6 feet. The coloring of the osprey is a dark brown or black feathering above, and white plumage on its underside. Its head is white with a tell-tale brow streak along its side, much like our school banner shows. The eye color of the osprey changes from the color red at a young age to that of yellow as they mature. The female is typically slightly larger than the male and has a prominent stripe of dark feathers on its neck, suggesting that the individual we saw at Marathon was a male.

The osprey's diet is almost entirely composed of fish, gaining it the nickname of the "Fish Hawk". Adaptations such as an adjustable toe, small spines on its feet, and long legs allow it to be able to catch and hold onto fish that would otherwise slip out of a hunter's grip. The osprey will dive up to a meter into the water in order to catch fish feet first and talons splayed. The breeding season of the osprey begins in late March and individuals will commonly reuse nests from previous seasons. Ospreys, unlike many species, are monogamous and will mate for life. The courtship and nest building rituals begin in April, where the males will perform a 'Sky Dance' and call out with a high-pitched whistling sound. Males will perform all of the foraging until the young birds become fledglings, and the females do the majority of the incubation. Eggs are laid in mid-April and after a 32-to-45-day incubation period the young will hatch in late May. The birds begin to learn to fly at around 7 to 8 weeks and the adults will feed them as they learn to hunt. Due to loss of habitat the osprey was once endangered in New Jersey, but recent conservation efforts have raised their status to threatened.