Osprey
Sea Hawk/ River Hawk/ Fish Hawk
Raptors of Kumbhargaon
Pandion haliaetus
Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary
Once again we return to the south of Bhigwan, where bereft of any hills, lie the wide Ujni backwater wetlands. A shallow waste water reserve formed by the discharge of water from the Pune region dams like Panshet, Pawna, Khadakwasla, Varasgaon, Temghar, etc. This semi waste water has created an excellent wetland based ecosystem supporting a large variety of water birds, both endemic and migratory, and also helped with the local agriculture. Nearly 300 species of endemic and migratory birds have been recorded here. The rainfall in the Pune region decides the water level in Ujni dam. Lesser the water, the shallower it is and therefore more birds make it their home in the winter.
Surrounding this lush ecosystem are the rich grasslands and fertile farms home to an impressive list of birds, mammals and reptiles. The area around these backwaters are also unique with rich farmlands and dry deciduous scrub forest with interspersed grasslands. Home to an impressive list of birds, mammals and reptiles they protect many mammals like the Chinkara, Hyena, Wolf and Indian fox and are also popular for grassland birds and the birds of prey, including the magnificent eagles & harriers I’ve talked about in earlier blogs.
Read about the eagles & harriers of Kumbhargaon:
The Endangered Steppe Eagle, the Vulnerable Greater Spotted Eagle & the rare and Vulnerable Eastern Imperial Eagle.
The beautiful Pallid Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier & Eurasian Marsh Harrier.
There are also other spectacular species like the Short-eared Owl, Spotted Owlets & the Indian Courser inhabiting the grasslands.
Read about my birds from Kumbhargaon & the Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary here and watch all the videos on my Youtube channel - WildArtWorks.
But today we will spend time on the Ujni backwaters in search of the Osprey, also called the Sea Hawk, River Hawk, and Fish Hawk.
During our time here we were hosted by and had the expert help of Sandip Nagare and his team of knowledgeable guides from the Agnipankha Bird Watcher group, especially Ganesh Bhoi, who went out of their way to ensure we had fantastic opportunities to explore, discover, observe & photograph over 82 species of birds and wildlife including some rare ones. We stayed at Sandip’s homestay of the same name and had the added pleasure of indulging in delectable home cooked food.
I spent a couple of days with great friends - Tirtho, Saugat & Samar (his first ever dedicated birding trip) - in Kumbhargaon village, the winter home for an immense variety of birds like Grey Herons, Painted Storks, Brown Headed Gulls, River Terns & Little Terns, the Black-headed & Red-naped Ibis, Little Ringed Plover and the Peregrine Falcon to name a few.
The following photos & video are but a snapshot of the beautiful time we spent with this raptor. Read about my other Raptors.
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Osprey
The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.
Unique among raptors for its diet of live fish and its ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons.
Ospreys search for fish by flying on steady wingbeats and bowed wings or circling high in the sky over relatively shallow water. They often hover above their prey and then plunge feet first to seize a fish in their long, curved talons. With a grip secured by sharp spicules on the underside of the toes, the bird carries its prey to a favourite perch to feed. Sometimes after feeding the osprey flies low over the water, dragging its feet as if to wash them.
The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.
As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. Three subspecies are usually recognized; one of the former subspecies.
The osprey was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae, and named as Falco haliaeetus. The genus, Pandion, is the sole member of the family Pandionidae, and used to contain only one species, the osprey (P. haliaetus). The genus Pandion was described by the French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. It has always presented something of a riddle to taxonomists, but here it is treated as the sole living member of the family Pandionidae, and the family listed in its traditional place as part of the order Falconiformes.
Other schemes place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae—which itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes or else be lumped with the Falconidae into Falconiformes. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has placed it together with the other diurnal raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes, but this results in an unnatural paraphyletic classification.
The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide. Even the few subspecies are not unequivocally separable. There are four generally recognised subspecies, although differences are small, and ITIS lists only the first two.
Pandion haliaetus haliaetus – (Linnaeus, 1758): the nominate subspecies, occurring in the Palearctic realm.
P. haliaetus carolinensis – (Gmelin, 1788): mainland Americas. This form is larger, darker bodied and has a paler breast than the type of the first description.
P. haliaetus ridgwayi – Maynard, 1887: Caribbean islands. This form has a very pale head and breast compared with nominate haliaetus, with only a weak eye mask. It is non-migratory. Its scientific name commemorates American ornithologist Robert Ridgway.
P. haliaetus cristatus – (Vieillot, 1816): coastline and some large rivers of Australia and Tasmania. The smallest and most distinctive subspecies, also non-migratory. Some authorities have assigned it full species status as Pandion cristatus, known as the eastern osprey.
An Osprey may log more than 160,000 migration miles during its 15-to-20-year lifetime. Scientists track Ospreys by strapping lightweight satellite transmitters to the birds’ backs. The devices pinpoint an Osprey's location to within a few hundred yards and last for 2-3 years. During 13 days in 2008, one Osprey flew 2,700 miles—from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, to French Guiana, South America.
Osprey Facts
Ospreys are unusual among hawks in possessing a reversible outer toe that allows them to grasp with two toes in front and two behind. Barbed pads on the soles of the birds' feet help them grip slippery fish. When flying with prey, an Osprey lines up its catch head first for less wind resistance.
Ospreys are excellent anglers. Over several studies, Ospreys caught fish on at least 1 in every 4 dives, with success rates sometimes as high as 70%. The average time they spent hunting before making a catch was about 12 minutes—something to think about next time you throw your line in the water.
The Osprey readily builds its nest on manmade 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. Rather, the first chick emerges up to five days before the last one. The older hatchling dominates its younger siblings, and can monopolise the food brought by the parents. If food is abundant, chicks share meals in relative harmony; in times of scarcity, younger ones may starve to death.
The name "Osprey" made its first appearance around 1460, via the Medieval Latin phrase for "bird of prey" (avis prede). Some wordsmiths trace the name even further back, to the Latin for "bone-breaker"—ossifragus.
The oldest known Osprey was at least 25 years, 2 months old, and lived in Virginia. It was banded in 1973, and found in 1998.
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The following are some photos and a video of the osprey we encountered in the Ujni backwaters in the early morning light. We tried our best to manoeuvre the boat as close as possible but the wind was gusting strong. We were sailing downwind but keeping a course in close quarters was difficult and the boat became quite ill-mannered trying to cope with the stiff crosswind.
We came across this Osprey multiple times as he flew around perching at his favourite spots and some times we were able to row close and sometimes he flew off as we started our approach. The first sighting was on top of this erstwhile transformer now submerged in the Ujni Backwaters.
These following shots were taken as the osprey took off from the transformer and flew about a kilometer to perch on a tree stump.
This next set is as it came back near the electrical post again and this time we were really close, too close actually as I had to twist and bend to fit the bird in my frame as it took off. Therefore the actual post is tilted :)
This next sequence was from the other side with the sun at our back.
The following footage was recorded on 11th February on the Ujni backwaters of the Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary. Taken from a boat as the wind was gusting quite strong. I have tried to keep the camera and lens as steady as possible but it was quite a task.
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