A Rose by Any Other Name.....

Cool Facts
The Osprey readily builds its nest on man-made structures, such as telephone poles, channel markers, duck blinds, and nest platforms designed especially for it. Such platforms have become an important tool in reestablishing Ospreys in areas where they had disappeared. In some areas nests are placed almost exclusively on artificial structures.

Osprey eggs do not hatch all at once, but instead the first chick hatches out up to five days before the last one. The older chick dominates its younger siblings, and can monopolize the food brought by the parents. If food is abundant, little aggression is seen amongst the chicks, but if food is limited, the younger chicks often starve.

The Osprey is a fish-eating specialist, with live fish accounting for about 99% of its diet. Barbed pads on the soles of its feet help it grip slippery fish. When an Osprey takes a large fish to its nest, it carries the fish headfirst to make it as aerodynamic as possible.

Sources:

Poole, A. F., R. O. Bierregaard, and M. S. Martell. 2002. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). In

The Birds of North America, No. 683 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Wikipedia notes that Osprey are also known colloquially as bayhawk, seahawk, fish hawk or fish eagle. I thought this was interesting after coming from the Pacific Northwest and having the Seattle Seahawks in our midst. Funny I never thought about it when I lived there! So would the Seattle Seahawks seem so fearless if they had been the Seattle Osprey instead? Not a chance!

This Osprey nest was found right in the middle of small town America next to a feed store. The Ospreys didn't seem to mind one bit. Nope, not one bit at all. In fact they seemed to flourish in this nest constructed on this "man-made structure".

(This is for Max, Jayden, Lee, Collin, Than, Amanda, Carrie, Brent, & Candy: CDEDBDIs???)