A Parent’s Work Is Never Done
The quiet realities of raising a family: an encounter with a recently fledged Osprey and its overworked parent near Lacombe, Alberta.
It was one of those bright summer afternoons that makes the Alberta countryside feel especially open. We crisscrossed the range roads outside Lacombe looking for a particular utility pole. Someone had installed a purpose-built nesting platform on top of the steel pole years ago, and we knew a pair of Ospreys had nested there this summer. We just didn’t know whether they would still be around.
The platform appeared in the distance, rising above the surrounding fields. Even before we reached it, we could see an Osprey sitting on the nest.
As we pulled closer, the Osprey fixed us with a look that was somehow both fierce and slightly dishevelled. As impressive as these raptors are, their faces are not particularly dignified. With the feathers around the head sticking out in every direction, they can look more like something from The Muppet Show than the image most people have of a majestic bird of prey. This one certainly did. After watching us for a while, it lifted off and began circling overhead, calling repeatedly. For a moment, it looked as though we had come too close to the nest.
Then a second Osprey appeared, this one carrying a fish.
Only then did the scene make sense.
The bird circling above us was not an anxious adult defending the nest. It was a recently fledged young Osprey. In other words, a teenager.
The adult, noticeably leaner after weeks of fishing for its offspring, landed briefly and dropped the fish onto the nest. The youngster landed on the nest and continued to vocalize, almost as if it were beckoning its parent not only to deliver the food but also to feed it. The parent lingered for a moment before taking off again, apparently satisfied that its offspring was old enough to feed itself. Bringing the fish, it seemed, was only part of the service the youngster expected, and it was perfectly willing to let its parent know there was still work to be done.
The nest itself wasn’t particularly tidy. A pile of sticks rested on the metal platform, with pieces of plastic that looked like fragments of netting collected and incorporated into the structure. Functional rather than elegant.
One of the things I find most interesting about Ospreys is how adaptable they are. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, making them one of the world’s most cosmopolitan raptors, surpassed in global reach only by the Peregrine Falcon. I’ve watched them hunting over prairie lakes, along the coast, beside fast-flowing mountain rivers high in the Rockies, and near tourist beaches in the tropics. The surroundings change. The fishing remains the same. If fish is on the menu, Ospreys will not be far away.
