A Remarkable Bird

     Take a guess:  what bird mates for life, returns to the same nest every year, migrates up to 3500 miles in autumn and again in spring in a state of semi-sleep, and can spend forty hours in the air at 25-30 mph without stopping?

   

Nest on Westport River, Massachusetts

Nest in shallow water on left

     The answer?  An osprey.

     In both Florida and Massachusetts, we live near osprey breeding grounds. We see their nests, the size of queen beds, made from anything the scavengers can lift. They balance on platforms at the top of high poles or on man-made structures like bridges. Some of the platforms have been erected by the Audubon Society.

Osprey nest on Westport River. Note piece of scrap iron hanging from bottom right.

     The Intracoastal Waterway in Florida and branches of the Westport River, Massachusetts (leading into Buzzard’s Bay below Cape Cod), provide supplies of fish, the birds’ only diet.

Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts

     Their curved talons and an under-surface on their toes consisting of short spines allow them to hold squirming fish while flying. Once when my mother was visiting us in Massachusetts, a foot-long, wet fish landed next to her on the deck. "Why were you throwing a fish at me?" she later asked her son-in-law (Charley).   
      “Evelyn,” Charley said, laughing, “I was working on the other side of the house and wouldn’t have had the strength to throw a heavy fish that far. Besides, I would never throw anything at you! An osprey probably let go.”

     Twenty years ago, the osprey became endangered in the U.S. The pesticide DDT caused the birds’ eggshells to become thin. As a result, the young exhibited symptoms of pesticide-poisoning or never hatched. After DDT was banned in the 1970’s in the U.S., the osprey population rebounded. The population worldwide today is estimated at 460,000. 

Adult osprey in flight

      Typically, two to four eggs are laid in April, always in the same breeding ground and in the same nest. Incubation lasts approximately 38 days. Fledglings may leave the nest at 44-59 days, but will still rely on parental care for six weeks. Sexual maturity isn’t reached till age three. A typical lifespan is seven to ten years, with their only known predators the great horned owl, golden eagles, and bald eagles.

Juvenile osprey in flight

     In shallow inland or coastal fishing waters, winter brings ice in northern regions. Fish head away from the surface, making it almost impossible for osprey to spot them from the air, despite their dense and oily plumage for diving feet-first. The larger-bodied mother leaves the nest first in late August through November, to migrate from North America to the shallow waters of Central and South America. Those residing in California and Florida don’t migrate.The Westport Watershed Alliance, Massachusetts, has placed transmitters on a sample population, allowing GPS signals to trace the migration thousands of miles.

     Ospreys can rest half their brains en route, shutting one eye and letting half their brain sleep. They fly in hot air rising (thermals) for hours without flapping their wings. When they start to lose altitude, they drop, glide, and search for another thermal. Their high-pitched chirps mingle with the wind.

     The father leaves the nest second to join his mate, and finally the juveniles. In late March or early April they make the return trip to breed.

A lone juvenile staring down at me in October from his nest on the Westport River, before leaving to migrate 

    

    

    

    

    

The New England Boom

There's a boom going on in New England, but it isn't where you'd think.  It's going on offshore in the haul of a little fish called the Atlantic herring.

This herring travels in groups sometimes numbering in the billions and was caught in the greatest numbers last year in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.  New England fishermen caught more than 95,000 metric tons of the fish last year for the first time since 2009, according to federal statistics reported by Patrick Whittle in The Providence Journal, July 13, '15, p. A10.

This was good news for fishermen, right?

A Herring Catch
Photo uploaded to public domain by Gentgeen April, '05

Yes and no.

Cod and tuna fishermen complain that the herring trawlers have left sections of the ocean bereft of the herring species, which cod and tuna rely on to eat.  Whittle quotes Maine tuna fisherman Steve Weiner as saying, "Everything from seabirds to whale-watching boats rely on a steady supply of herring for stability."  With strict cod quotas, Cape Cod fishermen are struggling to make a living.

The herring trawlers can be more than 100 feet long and drag 300-foot nets. Environmentalists claim the nets sometimes kill marine mammals, including four pilot whales, three seals, and a dolphin through incidental catch in 2014.

Herring is in high demand because it is the preferred bait for Maine's lobster industry (also reporting record catches in recent years).  Herring not used for bait become canned, smoked, pickled, or salted.

According to Whittle, the Northeast has struggled with herring quota cuts as recently as this decade.

Regulating fishing in the area is the New England Fishery Management Council, which will solicit feedback from the industry and the public.  "It will be important to develop scientific metrics for localized depletion," said Mary Beth Tooley, who sits on the Council and works for a corporation operating two herring trawlers. "The issue has become political," Tooley said.

What else is new?

A Friend's Fish Tank Tale

When I was a teen, I remember Dad getting into his new BMW to drive into town for an errand. Later he told us that when he opened the driver's door to get out, a big truck swiped it right off.  While he waited for the police and insurance man to come, he went into a tropical fish place right next to the car. He bought a 75-gallon aquarium and loaded it into the trunk.  After completing the paperwork, he bungee-corded his driver's door so he could get home.

He set up the aquarium with colored pebbles, a fake cave/rock, a plastic sponge diver, a few fake ferns, a bubbler, and a filter.  He stocked it with angel fish and gold fish and set it up in the front hall on an open shelf.

Things went well for a while and then the fish started dying.  Dad would take them out and lay them on a white plastic bread board to take their pictures.  Then he'd dispose of them.  I never asked where.

After all the fish died, the aquarium still had the rest of the stuff in it - the colored pebbles, the cave/rock, the plastic sponge diver, the fake ferns, the bubbler, the filter and water.  People coming to the house would look at the tank and tap on the glass to coax the very shy fish out of hiding.  Most of the visitors were convinced they actually saw fish dart in and out of the cave.  For 23 years the aquarium remained empty of fish, but the water continued to bubble and the diver continued his quest for sponges. I never asked why.

At age 36, I went into the freezer at my parents' house looking for something to eat and came across a flat foil brick.  I thought it might contain a block of cheese. When I opened it, I found the dead angel fish. I asked Dad why there were dead angel fish in the freezer and he said,
"I wanted to take a picture of the last one after it died, but I ran out of film.  Guess I forgot I'd stored them there."

I never asked him what had happened to the gold fish.


Suzanne Lynch
December 2003

FishbowlTales

Emma found her pet fish, Sunshine, floating in the murky bowl on her dresser.

The wailing went on for a couple of days.  "Please don't take her away, Momma, please!  Why didn't Hannah's fish die?  Her fish is older and the water was dirtier.  I just changed mine."

"Are you sure it wasn't last week, Emma?" her mother said.  Our daughter-in-law explained that no living thing can last forever, and she was proud of the way Emma had taken care of Sunshine.  "We can't keep her in your room any longer.  The water's starting to smell."

"OK, let's bury her."

"We can't do that right now.  The ground's frozen and we can't dig."

"Well, let's put her in the freezer till we can bury her."

"Not with our food, Emma."

"Then I'll wrap her up and put her in a box in the basement."

"No, the box would begin to stink up the basement."

"Well, I'm not going to flush her down the toilet!"

After another day, even Emma couldn't stand the smell in her room.  She said a few sentences over the toilet bowl and Sunshine was on her way to sewer heaven.

***********************************************************************************

Little Maria was in the bathtub before her bedtime story.  When her mother went into Maria's room to grab her pajamas, something shiny caught her eye.

"Oh good heavens," Julia said to herself, poking the floating tail with a pencil .  "Looks like Hubert bit the dust!  I'd better ask John what to do."

With Maria still in the bathtub, the parents conferred outside the bathroom door. They decided to put a towel over the fishbowl.  "It has to be totally dark for Hubert to get to sleep," Maria's mother told her. "And you should be in bed now, too."

While Julia read to her daughter, John was on a mission to Petco.  He returned with a fish the same size as Hubert in a baggie.  After Maria had fallen asleep, her parents waited two hours. Then John removed the bowl from her room, changed the water, and flushed Hubert, Sr., down the toilet. Hubert, Jr., had found a new home.

***********************************************************************************

In his pre-teen years our son Todd used all his allowance money to buy a tank, water pump, and accessories for an exotic fish.  He could only afford one fish, since they ran $20 or more apiece and it took him a while to save the money.  The plan was to have a collection.

Despite the good care he gave the dazzling blue specimen, Todd found it floating on top of the tank one day.  He replaced it with another exotic, after he'd saved another $20.  This one was yellow with black stripes.

Eventually it, too, was floating on top of the tank.  Charley and I consulted the pet store people and chipped in for water purifiers.  When Todd had saved another $20, he bought a bright green specimen that looked more like a frog.

It, too, followed its predecessors down the toilet.

At which point we bought an Airedale.

Grandma's Gifts

     When Jen's son, Sean, turned three, Jen's parents bought the toddler a Betta fish.  It looked like an ordinary fish but had beautiful fins and could breathe air from the water's surface. 
     "I know your schedule is hectic with Sean and work," Jen's mother said, "but you won't have to worry about taking care of it, as long as the dog can't reach it.  Just an occasional sprinkle of freeze dried shrimp in this little fish bowl.  It doesn't need filtration or a pump.  Besides, Sean will love watching it in his room."
     It was the kind of bowl Jen used when she made strawberry trifle.  "He can watch his dog in his room."
     Jen's mother found a beautiful tank for Sean's fish, now named Goldie.  "This tank goes perfectly with your living room!  Look at the chrome trim and the lovely waterfall."
     "Mom, I need a light for this and a pad and some rocks and stuff in there and a pump for the waterfall.  Besides, it's too big for Goldie."
     "So, we'll get her some company."
     "This is a Betta fish, Mom.  It's not an exotic $20 fish.  Goldie doesn't need a palace."
     Along with a supply of Amquel, Novaqua, aquarium salt, and a PH kit for the new tank, Jen's mother found a sucker fish to keep Goldie company.  "It's really a small catfish," she said, "but it will keep the tank clean.  I couldn't get a male Betta, because they're very aggressive toward their females.  I didn't think Sean would want to see that."
     Within two weeks, the sucker fish passed away.  So did the next sucker fish.  Goldie thrived.
     For Sean's fifth birthday, he received a lizard from Jen's parents.  The lizard came with its own tank, a heat lamp, a tank lamp, a tank pad, and a supply of wax worms and crickets.  "Oh my God!  My electric bill!" Jen said.  "Not to mention that crickets are going to be jumping all over the place."
     Sean hid in a closet and wouldn't come out till the lizard and his house were back in grandma's car.