Strange Osprey Behavior

Lake Jesup
Osprey
Yesterday I went over to Lake Jesup, and I saw an Osprey flying low over the water. It made three or four passes just above the surface, and it seemed to be dragging its feet in the water.  I first guessed that it was cleaning fish guts off of them. But when I looked more closely, I noticed that it was putting its bill into the water. The bird was pretty far away on a foggy morning, so my pictures aren't fantastic, but you can clearly see the behavior. I've never seen an Osprey do this before.  I did a little research online to see if others had observed this same behavior. I did find a few people who were equally puzzled by it.  Some believe it's a fishing technique, but from what I saw yesterday, it didn't appear to be so.  It was dragging its feet behind it, and I don't see how it could catch a fish that way.  Others thought it was collecting water for hatchlings, but I doubt that's the case in December here.  So my best guess is that it's drinking water.  My understanding is that Osprey's don't normally need to drink water, since they get their water from the fish they catch.  But maybe this one just likes to drink water.  If any of you have any insights on this behavior, I'd love to know.

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Osprey

Comments

  1. Any chance it was dragging a fish too heavy to carry? It doesn't look like its talons are clenching anything. Interesting!

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  2. Thanks! Yea, it had nothing in its talons, and it didn't seem to be trying to catch anything either. So weird.

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  3. Birds are smart survivors...IF it ate something distasteful, would it guzzle water to do a colonic cleanse??:) Enjoyed watching an osprey circle & dive into our Kings Point pond 4 times one day...never caught a fish? Was it just cleansing beak&talons?? Will never know, but fun to watch!:) Tks for photos Scott.....

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  4. Looks to me like it was taking a bath on the wing. Although we typically associate this behavior with smaller birds (i.e. swallows), larger species are capable as well (i.e. frigatebirds).

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  5. Sounds like a pretty good explanation. I've seen swallows do this, Pretty cool to see an Osprey do it.

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  6. Established behavior. I've see it too in the Indian River Lagoon (brackish) and Blue Cyprus Lake (fresh). Both times the surface was calm, but not mirrored. Another possibility is after millions of years pursuing the same prey, they are chumming the surface. In neither of my encounters the did they appear to come back.

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  7. Hmm; interesting. This one never came back either.

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  8. I saw this exact same behavior last weekend and got some photos of it. As you were thinking, I too was thinking at first that it may be cleaning its feet, but when I saw how close its beak was to the water I too thought maybe it was getting a drink although I can't say that I ever actually saw its beak go into the water.

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  9. I've seen Osprey do this at least once since writing this post, but so I've found no better explanations than the ones below. It's fascinating to say the least.

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