Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1912 — LEARN OF OSPREYS’ HABITS [ARTICLE]

LEARN OF OSPREYS’ HABITS

Ornithologists Gather Knowledge From Visits of Birds to Island* Near New York. A great colony of ospreyß, or fisbhawks, built their nests at one time upon the property of various owner* of btad on an Island near New York, a circumstance that enabled ornithologists to gather some Interesting data, with respect to the breeding habits'of* this bird. One osprey’s nest was built upon a pile of old fence railß, only seven or, eight feet from the ground. It had! been added to annually until its bulkof sticks, sods, decayed wood, seaweed and the like amounted to something like-three cartloads. Two other nests were built In cedar trees. These,too, had been occupied every year for many seasons, and had been increasedby the addition of fresh material, until; they filled the whole upper parts o£ the trees. - In the wooded parts of the island the nests were very numerous. The larger trees In the Interior of the wood were all occupied, and on the edge of the wood every, tree, large or small, had at least one nest, and some o£ them two or three. On the sandy plain, beyond the woods a hundred or more nests were built on the ground, and on the north shore, where the beach was strewn with boulders, almost every one of the larger rocks had a nest on it. When one investigator approached some of the nests, the older birds flew silently away and did not return until all was quiet. In other cases the hawk* were noißy, and even showed fight, darting down at the visitor’s head, and striking out with their talons. These birds, however, would return 4 to their eggs when the caller remained quiet, though he might be only fifty, feet away. One nest was seen to contain an old broken ax, a bootjack and a straw hat. Of the variety of materials wrought Into the different structures the following is a brief list: Barrel staves, barrel heads and hoops, the tiller of a beat, a small rudder and parts of life preservers, brooms, an old plane,—a feather duster, a blacking brush, part of a hay rake, a fubber boot, several pairs of shoes, a pair of trousers, a long fishing line with hooks and sinkers wound on a board, bottles, tin cans, a door mat and a rag doll. In the interstices of many of the larger structures smaller birds had built their nests, well protected from the weathei;. The grackles were especially given to doing this, and were very bold In collecting fragments from the fishhawks’ tables.—Harper 1 * Weekly.