Out at the the lake again this morning, this guy flew over us and perched in a tree. I got several shots - this is probably the clearest. I was looking at hawks for an id and coming up with nothing when I tumbled to this as a possibility. I had heard they were trying to introduce osprey in Iowa, but never expected to see one.
You betcha! Congratulations!!!
Yay! I'm really excited about this. I've been reading up on ospreys in Iowa:
"In 2009, there are 14 osprey nests in Iowa...There have been 209 ospreys released at 10 sites since 1997. Ospreys have successfully nested in Iowa since 2003 with 33 young produced from 16 successful nestings. All Iowa ospreys have a purple band with number and letter on right leg and silver USFWS band on left leg. The wild-produced ospreys from Iowa have a green USFWS band."
I can't see the banding in any of my shots, but I think we were pretty lucky to see this fellow.
Congrats!! ^_^
Nice catch!
hack
Congratulations, great shot! :)
Thanks for the nice comments - icing on the cake!
That's cool! Yay on you that you figured out what it was without having seen one.
I think the ones who live north of you might be migrating? Maybe it doesn't have a band because it is from out of town. (Yall be nice, and maybe it will bring a little friend to start a family next year. 8>)
At this time of year, it could just as easily be a bird on migration from further north in Canada, rather than one of the local re-introduction birds.
Resin
Resin and birdlady,
I agree - and I thought of that later. There are osprey in northern Minnesota and throughout Wisconsin, according to the range maps, and the timing is right for one of them to be passing through. Our lake is probably too small to support ospreys on a permanent basis, so either way I was still lucky.
Resin, nice to find you back - I think everyone waits for your imprimatur before considering a thread really closed.
