August 2024 Newsletter

On top of a tree that has gone dead from a lightning strike at Frenchman’s Creek lies a nest built by ospreys. It’s the male osprey who sought out the twigs and sticks and brought them back to the female who arranged them into a nest—this is the role each plays. Jagged and appearing weather-beaten, the dead tree is one that is reminiscent of the harshest of winters in the Northeast but holds the dearest of osprey hatchlings after breeding season ends each April. These birds are loyal to one another, tending to family as the females incubate the eggs for at least a month, and the males bring home dead fish bits for all to eat. Female ospreys typically lay between two to three eggs, usually two to three days apart. “Not all at one time,” explained Burton Greenberg, longtime Frenchman’s Creek resident, and author of the Birds of Frenchman’s Creek booklet. “They tend to hatch each of the chicks three days apart.” But a disadvantage exists in the hatching schedule, Greenberg said. “The mother doesn’t differentiate between each hatchling and feeds the hungriest. By the time the third hatchling is born, it’s fighting for food and cannot compete . . . we lost a third baby this way.” Baby ospreys grow quickly, and usually after six to eight weeks pass, they can take flight. Like their parents, ospreys are predatorial and enjoy open spaces near the water. It’s no wonder an osprey nest exists here near the Frenchman’s Creek South golf course by the 9th hole and its golfing water hazard. Plus, it’s less than two miles from the Atlantic—close enough for the birds to fly to the ocean and dive for live fish. Ospreys love to hunt and crash into the water at 30 mph, and can submerge themselves up to three feet, sometimes carrying live fish that weigh half of their own weight back home to their nest. How far they roam is wide—they can migrate as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Mexico. At Frenchman’s Creek, osprey history is bittersweet. They migrated to the community within the last five to 10 years, Greenberg noted, but three to four years ago, a “good storm came through, and it disrupted the nest. Two eggs fell . . . one was smashed but the other intact.” Greenberg took the surviving egg to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, a Jupiter-based non-profit organization that rehabilitates wildlife. “They incubated it, but nothing happened, it did not hatch,” he said. “I spoke with our former golf course manager to encourage having a platform built to create more stability for the nest.”

The result? So far, so good, with new osprey life this year, as two hatchlings were born, Greenberg added.

Osprey nests have popped up elsewhere in the community, or rather remnants of nests. Whether it’s the birds at the 9th hole South course, or new ones, they attempted to pull together sticks and twigs to create a home on the 12th hole of the North course, but little was built. And any activity or hatchlings beyond this attempt remain unknown.

Another platform off the green at the 5th hole on the South course exists, but little osprey activity has been recorded.

To view Frenchman’s 24/7 Osprey cam, click here.

August 2024

7