May 9

Osprey! Over Maple Leaf Reservoir Park

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Just Thursday we were (again) wishing for an Osprey – and shortly after 4 p.m. today it arrived.

Ospreys (fish hawks) are not uncommon visitors to Maple Leaf in the spring and summer.

They have many times been seen perched on the Comcast tower on Roosevelt Way Northeast, eating fish taken from Lake Union. See Dale’s comment on Thursday’s sharpie post.

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and 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.

Nearby, there’ s a large concentration of nesting Ospreys every year at Everett’s American Legion Memorial Park, where they nest largely on pilings in Port Gardner Bay.

To get an idea of what that looks like, here’s an Osprey cam from  Montana, also from Cornell (as is the photo, above).

And that makes 32 species in our park bird list. Today’s park Osprey was over the northeast corner. About 15 minutes later two Ospreys were heard overhead a bit further north.

About the author 

Sara W

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  1. Thank you C.C.!!! I even have a six foot fence surrounding my backyard, which does nothing to deter Felix. I will help you release the wolves, and I doubt they would bother with jumping my fence. Unless there were a tasty Felix worth getting to.

  2. Thank you Jarvis and I am with you buddy. Want to have a nicely tilled flower bed? Forget about it. Felix the cat is going fill it with poop and create little mounds. Meanwhile back to dog poop; mowing my lawn tonight I managed to roll over some little dog poop left by some __hole. Maybe we should introduce wolves into Maple Leaf. Think about it. Wolves lovers win and so do Jarvis and I.

  3. As long as we are discussing the laws and Fido’s deposits, how about the law that allows cats to roam freely into our yards to pee and poop, and the owners don’t care, and animal control literally tells me I have NO rights in this matter. On my private property! I have no pets, but I’d sure rather see an off-leash dog enjoying the park than an off-leash cat defecating in MY yard.

  4. All right ! Another point and counter point about off leash dogs. So we will set the law aside and allow dog owners to justify it in their in own minds. Meanwhile, let’s pump it a notch and introduce into the dialogue dog owners who do not clean up after fido has emptied his or her bowels into your lawn. Please discuss.

  5. I’m on both sides if the fence here. I have a dog and he’s well trained so I let him off leash when its not super crowded. On the other hand I have seen dogs off leash, from time to time, that are not well trained. Bottom line; if you can’t control your dog don’t let it off leash.

    “I’m psyched, lets go kill some birds”….name that movie

  6. Hi! It is interesting that your suggestion to be more inclusive is wrought by exclusion of another user group.

    Did you go and introduce yourself to your “off-leashing” neighbors and have a chat or point out where the nearest legal “off-leashing” park can be found? No.

    Oh, and your post has nothing to do with the topic which is pretty lame.

  7. Hi! I would like to suggest that if we want a more inclusive park/ neighborhood we may want to keep the off-leashing to a minimum. I saw two families pack up because the kids clearly were not comfortable with the dogs.

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