The hawk I associate closest with is the fish hawk (Osprey). The Osprey I remember from my child hood days. That was a time when I could spot or identify 5 or 6 birds. You know seagulls, robins, sparrows and ducks. The certain excitement it met to see a big bird take a dive in the middle of the creek, and the feeling of wonder when Mr. Fish Hawk rose from beneath the water with a slippery shaking fish and rose up a hundred feet or so, than somehow flipped the fish around so the fish was facing the right way to give less wind resistance (at the time I had no idea why he flipped that fish).
In 1950 there were at least 25-30 nests on the North Fork, 10 active nests from Greenport to Orient Point. Most of us always thought of Fish Hawks as a type of Hawk, but is not a hawk or eagle it reality is a Pandion Haliaetus. Although not an Eagle, for me a being on earth, having touched a Fish Hawk, the honor for me was as great as if I had touched an Eagle. It was just as good and an honor to have done such…
There was this Mansion at the end of shipyard lane in East Marion it stood where the condominiums are now. It was abandoned before the war. We would hear there were ghosts that flew the halls at night and some one hung himself by tying a rope to the chandelier, the rope was still there the last time I went in there. There was an easy window on the East End of the mansion right in the garden, it was a little high but we managed to get in. Usually there were at least 3 or 4 of us that would take the dare and see how deep into this above the water Titanic would allow us to go. There were two huge wood meat lockers one on each side of the hall one for women and one for men??. There was a huge kitchen with enough iron stoves to cook a couple of steers at once. Opposite that was a dining room for 50. I could go on but I will keep the rest of that mansion on hold. I have to explain that there were 3 stories and an attic above that which was unfinished. It had no windows but all the walls were mahogany that was a heavy real shiny wood. There was a heavy ladder to the roof, it was as far as I ever gone but this time I was determine to go the rest of the way. There were two brass-sliding locks that held the door down; the 3rd time I got that far but never opened the door. This time I opened it. Just behind the trap door was a huge chimney about 4 feet high and the on top of that was a huge Osprey nest, it seemed huge a few feet away from me and was occupied. The Fish Hawk and I didn’t move, it was about 4 ft or less to the nest. I thought in the dark he or she might stay there so I took a chance and ran my fingers down her the back of her head to her wing she did let out a slight squeak (not loud). I touched the back of her head and backed up nearly falling over the trap door and said "Goodbye nice Eagle". I will never experience any thing like that again.
It’s a good thing that Ospreys and humans can tolerate each other; otherwise one of us would have to leave. In the past we usually did not try to get along with most animals and birds if they seem to be in completion with us. The fish hawk ever seemed a threat even to most fishermen. Its distinction as the only species in North American of Osprey sort of gives it first place as far as I'm concerned. Its size and the way it holds its wings in a W shape and it's whistling call from overhead. Its size helps us identify the Osprey, and of course its eating habits. No other (Hawk) hunts fish exclusively.
Just before World War II, about 1940, our family went to Orient State Park on a picnic. There were 25 Osprey nests, some on the ground, and in the branches of low growing pines. I think that was unusual even then. Ospreys are easy to identify, besides their size, their large nests and their keel over dive bomb attacks. Most of their dives are from 60 to 100 ft and the dive was steep usually about 60 degrees. Their dives are about 30 mph to 50mph the speed that was dependent on the depth of the fish. The wings of an Osprey were stronger then most Hawks. On a dive first the talons shoot forth then the powerful legs followed by the long wings. At 50 mph hitting the water they would need something like Kevlar on them.
Ray and I camped in a place we called Fordam's Woods. The exact location was across RTE 25 at Breck Knock Hall, a huge granite building about 500 ft from the highway. We defiantly camped close enough to the nest tree; our tent was white washed by morning. Needless to say we could not use that tent again. Ray and I both lived within 10 minuets from the nest. The best vantage point to that nest was the north side of the cemetery. The dirt road in the cemetery was about 400 ft from the nest. The nest tree had been the tallest pine in that 10 acre wooded area. I know that tree had held a pair of Ospreys for at least 10 years from 1948 until 1958. The tree just couldn’t take it any longer and fell over. It was to Osprey's advantage, they didn’t mind and tolerated humans to the extent they would even nest in parking lots and parks. It would be no surprise to see a nest in a high tree in a person's back yard.
Ray and I kept an eye on 5 separate nests. There were 3 nesting pairs on the far side of Sterling Creek. Ray and I lived on this side of the creek, so we very well knew the coming and goings of all the hawks on the creek. Sad to say we witness the demise of 2 fish hawks by practicing hunters and in 1953 found 3 that were shot beneath the nest that was on Gull Pond.
Ray and I always considered ourselves (self-proclaimed conservationists) not much went on the crick that we didn't know about from 1946 to about 1955. We were hell on wheels when we came upon something that was wrong. Just an example of what we had to up go against.
It was September 1951, Ray and I had been hiking in the forest (woods) near Gull Pond (some years hence the inlet from Gull Pond had been dredged) part of the woodland became a mudflat with tall reeds taking over most of the open land. When they pumped out the inlet they didn’t want it to all wash back into the just dug channel so they built about an 8-ft dike between the woods and water. This made it a good vantage point to hide out behind the dike and shoot at the fish hawks on the other side of the inlet. Ray and I caught them red handed. We just walked right up to them and shouted, "What the hell are you doing." One of them even in this situation said, "get down they will se ya" We didn’t have any guns with us all we had was our army knives. If they pointed their guns at us I don’t know what we would have done. "It's against the law to shoot Fish Hawks" I tried to make myself sound tougher. "Yeah" said Ray "There is a $100 fine if you are caught with one " "Well we ain't going to take them home. We just wanna kill em." I recognized both of them; they had quit school a few years ago. "For one thing there is no season for anything in September, and we were told by the town police to turn anybody in on this property. " They got up from the bank and slowly went back down the road. I remember when they got out of earshot, I held my hand over my mouth and said in a muffled voice, ''and don’t come back again''. Both Ray and I were shivering in our shoes. We knew some vague stories about them getting into trouble.
We had to turn in several other happenings on the creek. However, we never got anywhere with our complaints. The very worse thing that I ever saw was down at the bulkhead at the end of our street. Our house was only about 300 ft from the bulkhead. Ray and I were crabbing behind the house next to the bulkhead. We could see something was going on but there was no way we were going over to see what was going on. Within a few minutes, two cars pulled up and all the guys about 6 got in They took off in a hurry
We just had to see what gives, the two neighbor kids that lived next to us, came running down, when we got there we wished we had not witnessed this crime scene, worse than any movie we had ever scene. There were two
16 ft open row boats and they were both covered from bow to stern with the blood of at least 100 or more ducks in each boat. It would be impossible to identify most of them and a few of them were not even ducks. The sadist part was as Ray looked down into the boats… He exclaimed, "There were some still alive." Without thinking about himself, he started down to the boats; he tried the best he could to get the ducks that were still flopping around. Ray slipped and fell a couple of times it was an impossible task. Dick from next-door also made an effort beyond his ability or anyone else's. I told Fred, Dick's younger brothers, to run home and have his Mom to call the police, a doctor, or something. Fred had just a fleeting look of horror and he was just about gagging. "Just keep an eye on the road and yell if you see the cars coming back!" I yelled at Fred. I managed to untie one of the boats and worked it up to shore. From there I could reach over the side of the boat.
I don't think you can fathom such a tragedy even if you were in the middle of such a sad situation. Ducks have a will to live that is hard to believe.
Some of these ducks had lost wings or legs and were still trying to go somewhere. I pulled out a couple large birds you couldn’t tell weather they were Loons or Cormorants. There was just no way of counting all these bodies and there was little we could do. I doubt if even one of these ducks survived. Fred yelled, "Some cars were coming" our cue to get out of there. It was the fire dept. They were at odds about what to do with 250 ducks in the boats and 25 mortally injured going around in circles.
Ray and I were only about 15 at the time, we new something about the hunting seasons and what we did know was if the authorities wanted to do something about it they could (if they went by the laws). It was 3 days before any duck open season, if it was open season they could fine for the amount of ducks each person could shot over 10, so these six men would be allowed 60 ducks with 200 more that they would be fined for. Both of their boats were illegal, one had two 33 hp, motors and the other had a big racing outboard apparently used them to chase them down. We were never sure what became of the men or there boats.
Getting side tracked, the Ospreys in the past 50 years had all sorts of persecutions, being shot, even trapped and eggs collected. Not to mention what might have been the Osprey's demise DDT. The chances of Osprey's eggs not being able to survive the weight of the mother bird plummeted in 1946 to 20 % of the eggs not hatching to less than 40% in 1950 and in 1969 about 95 %. This epidemic was world wide the largest colony in the world had 150 nests for generations in 1972 there were 2 left. Ospreys have colonized most of the world.
A majority of Osprey sub adults spend winters in Central and South America, not the best place to be. Young Ospreys endure tremendous stress and a battlefield of hardships. Starvation is a constant menace to young birds, the use of DDT and other pesticides is still wide spread throughout Central America If the Osprey can survive its first sub adult year 1 in 3 will make it back home. Providing we care enough we can save some of our brothers and sisters of the sky so they may live in our sight and hearts many generations to follow…
A few other Osprey facts their feet are larger then Hawks with more rough surface that keeps a better grip for holding slippery fish and there talons or more like hooks and are made to get a powerful grip on a fish, Their wing area is greater than most hawks for the size of its body. This gives them more lifting power when pulling prey out of the water. They can lift nearly twice the weight of a hawk there size, about 3 to 4 lbs., but usually their usual catch is much smaller than that. Nature sometimes doesn't think of everything. When the Osprey hits the prey and the talons lock on the Osprey cannot let go of the fish. If the fish is too heavy it is a sad ending for both fish and bird.
Another way the Ospreys are unique, they migrate while holding a fish in their talons (Osprey packing a lunch). The Osprey has made remarkable come back. They became the poster child for species lost to pesticide use in the 50's and 60's, How the Osprey can be seen nesting on telephone poles, even cell phone towers, and other man made towers. The more I think about and remember those Fish Hawks of Sterling Creek and Gull pond and how wild and free they were.
Another hi light of my Osprey watching was how they fought, When another Fish Hawk ran into a pair's territory, they would rolled and would sometimes lock their talons together and would drop 50 to 100 ft and climb again with all sorts of aerial feats it looked dangerous, but I never saw one get hurt. During the courting season both of the couple would perform a somehow gentle more passionate feat of aerial combat.
(Long Live the Fish Hawk.)
Bill Reeves 9/9/08
