Take your Guess for a Chance to Win! Can you guess when Island Lake's Osprey will return this Spring? Click here and enter your contact information and your Osprey return date in the spaces provided. The person who enters the correct return date will win an annual Membership pass valid for Conservation Areas operated by Credit Valley Conservation. Prizes will be awarded at a special bird watching hike at Island Lake Conservation Area lead by CVC's Education Department on International Bird Migration Day, May 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM. Anyone interested in Ospreys and all the other birds returning to southern Ontario are welcome to attend the hike and meet this year's winner! Click here for contest rules and regulations.

At the top of the aquatic food web, ospreys are birds of prey like eagles, hawks and falcons. Ospreys eat fish almost exclusively. They catch fish in a dramatic way and are equipped with an opposable outer toe (which can be moved to point forwards or backwards), and sharp spines on the soles of the feet which help the Osprey to grasp the wriggling fish until a safe perch is reached. Almost eagle sized, Ospreys weigh 1.5 - 2.0 kg, with a wingspan of 1.6 metres.

Reproductive problems in North American Ospreys were first observed in New England in the mid-1960s. Few chicks were being produced and when nests were examined they often contained unhatched or cracked eggs, or just eggshell fragments. The same phenomena were seen in Ospreys around the Great Lakes basin.

A single pesticide, DDT, appears to have been largely responsible for the dramatic population declines in Ospreys and many other bird species. DDT breaks down into DDE, which is the substance identified as the cause of eggshell thinning and reproduction failure in Osprey’s and other birds of prey.

The 1960s and early 1970s were periods of critical population decline for Great Lakes Ospreys. Osprey numbers along much of the Atlantic coast of the United States, also crashed at this time. Canada’s Great Lakes populations declined most significantly.

Since 1972, DDT use had been banned or severely restricted, and Ospreys have slowly bounded back. Staff at Island Lake Conservation Area erected Osprey nesting platforms in September, 2003 and the first nesting attempts by Osprey were in April 2004. This resulted in a pair of Osprey raising two young successfully!

This platform provides a safe place for Osprey to nest with ample amount of food nearby for their young. Osprey typically build their nests atop tall, semi-isolated structures, which often lead to nesting on man-made structures such as antennas and utility poles. Their nests are built from things such as sticks, driftwood, seaweed, and other materials. After all the ice has melted and the Osprey return, they are faced with the task of adding new materials to the nest they have been using for years, in preparation for their eggs. Since Osprey mate for life and are very territorial, they have returned to this platform at Island Lake every year!