Community Corner

Ospreys Return To Summer Home Near Neck River

Right on schedule, the ospreys are returning to their nest near the boat launch on Neck River, off of Circle Beach in Madison, CT. Check out these photos from Donna Johnson Buckley.

 

Right on time, ospreys are returning to their nests in and around Madison. 

The magnificent hawks overwinter in Florida, northern coastal Mexico, and northern South America. They then return to Connecticut in late March. 

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Photographer Donna Johnson Buckley photographed these birds near the osprey platform near the Neck River, off of Circle Beach in Madison. 

"The OSPREYS are BACK! Let the nesting begin," she wrote on a message on Facebook. 

Find out what's happening in Madisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to an osprey factsheet from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, osprey pairs generally prefer to return to the their summer homes, doing a little bit of refurbishing and renovation every time they return:

Osprey pairs usually return to the same nest site and add new nest materials to the old nest each year. An average of three eggs is laid in April; incubation begins with the first egg laid. Eggs are white to pink or cinnamon and heavily blotched with dark brown. Adults are protective of the nest site and may exhibit aggressive behavior at the approach of a potential intruder. The month-long incubation period is usually completed by the female, who is fed by the male during this time. Sixty days after hatching, young osprey make their first flight. After fledging, the young remain with the parents for up to two months. Young remain at wintering grounds for two to three years until they return to the north to make their first breeding attempt.

If you want to check out the ospreys, you can travel to the . But please be quiet, be careful, and please don't try to get up close or do anything that would disturb the hawks: 

Human activities encourage the presence of predators, such as raccoons, that climb into the nests and destroy the eggs or young. One of the most detrimental human activities is littering. Carelessly discarded litter along the shoreline, especially plastic six-pack yokes and monofilament fishing line, which are often used as nest material, can cause the strangulation death of young osprey. People are encouraged to dispose of all litter in an appropriate, safe manner. Human disturbances also affect nesting success by keeping adults off the nest, thus preventing them from attending young. During the nesting season, people or their pets should maintain a distance of at least 500 feet from an osprey nest. Disturbance of ospreys is prohibited under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the Connecticut General Statutes Section 26-92.

Read more at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection website

Trails.com says the Neck River/East River area, near the border of Madison and Guilford, is a great place to kayak and explore

The East River —the boundary between Guilford and Madison — provides superb tidal salt marsh paddling. From the access on Grass Island, the river extends about 6 miles inland in a fairly wide, gently winding channel, with lots of small tributary streams to explore. Near the boat launch, the Neck River bears off to the right but heads into a more populated area. You could easily spend a full day exploring this area, observing the many changes caused by rising and falling tides. At high tide you can look out over the broad expanses of Spartina (salt marsh grass). As the tide falls, the horizon disappears behind high sod banks clad with mussels and alive with fiddler crabs and other generally hidden salt marsh creatures. Expect to see: waterfowl, egrets, osprey, fiddler crabs, Spartina.

Read more at Trails.com: East River | Madison Connecticut Water Trails | Trails.com 

 


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