Orville flew like a real osprey today for the first time. Notice the purple martins flying in formation with him. His weight was 1380g. He started with several 10-foot hops to various perches. He’d been doing this for a few days already. Then he unexpectedly (will I ever learn?) overflew a perch and took off across the lake! He turned towards a finger of the lake that grew narrow between trees, got befuddled in the turn, then clumsily landed in the small branches of an oak overhanging the water. He didn’t make a sound until I drove a boat underneath him.
He eyed the perch and fish, but never came to the boat. I went back to the yard and set up a tripod perch with fish on it. He soon (after many false starts) took off, circled, then set up for a landing in the yard. Just then, our bouncy Australian shepherd exuberantly began running, wagging, and barking in the landing zone.
This, of course, frightened the timid bird who then landed on top of the roof. I was somewhat relieved as I had been in this situation many times. I had the yard set up with several tempting perches and tethered fish. He soon (20 minutes, but it seemed like a long time) flew down to the tripod perch and began eating. I had tempted him to this perch by cutting up some fish with his favorite tin snips in full view.
These birds are not very flexible regarding flying for food or tidbits. At his age, in the wild, an osprey probably should avoid diving at fish he saw swimming under the nest and just let mom safely feed him. Regardless, my bird hesitantly flew down (they also don’t like to get low to their surroundings) to perch. I think the familiar perch is as important as the food at higher weights.
