Ospreyfest Celebrates Bird Uncommon to Desert
At Heron Lake this week, a baby piñon jay stood perched at the tallest point of a juniper plant, about 10 feet high. It bobbled awkwardly, spreading its wings before retracting them in a flash.
It was trying to learn how to fly.
“His dad’s around here somewhere watching him,” said Siscily Lederman, who has worked for Heron Lake State Park for three years.
The task looked arduous, though not when compared to the ospreys who also spend their summers by the lake. Lederman watched the jay through binoculars, then turned around, craned her neck and fixed on an osprey nest. At the same time as the fuzzy gray jay’s body swayed nervously atop the juniper, a baby osprey was attempting the same maneuver from more than 40 feet off the ground. Its wings spread and flapped. It would barely lift off before touching back down at the rim of the nest.
“They’re getting closer to fledging,” Lederman said. Fledging is when a bird first becomes strong enough for flight. “Before, every now and then, you would see a spazzy wing flop out. But they’re getting to be 6 or 7 weeks old.”
It’s Ospreyfest this weekend at Heron Lake State Park, the third annual celebration of these raptors. The park has been trying to generate more interest with special events, and the ospreys fit the beak. They’ll summer at Heron until September.
“Ospreys aren’t rare or unique,” Lederman said, noting that the birds can be found on every continent but Antarctica. “But they are rare or unique to New Mexico. This is a desert, and they’re fishing birds.”
The fledging babies have a busy few months ahead. An osprey’s diet consists almost entirely of fish, and it’ll be up to the males to go from nervous flappers to daredevil skydiver fish hawks.
“The whole family will be out flying,” Lederman said. “They’ll be learning for many weeks to come. You can see the young ones over the water, and their parents are off to the side. You can hear them — ‘Beep beep beep’ — communicating.”
It’s hard to spot an osprey catching a fish, because it happens intermittently and very quickly. The bird will circle about 60 feet above the water, scanning the surface with eyesight several times sharper than that of a human being. Then it’ll dive-bomb at 40 mph, its body tucked into a streamlined bullet. At the last possible moment, huge talons extend forward. The birds can go underwater up to three feet, but they try not to. They snatch the fish faster than you can cry “Nemo!” and flap away with supper for the wife and kids.
At a lake where fishing is the main draw, birds and people haven’t had to compete for food. No fishermen have reported having their catch pilfered from above during reel-in.
But dangling just below the nest where that baby osprey was flapping its wings was a random, unknown fishing pole.
“We think the male got tired of fishing and brought back a pole one day,” Lederman said. “He said ‘Here. You catch them.’ ”
There are eight nests around Heron Lake, most on poles put in place by the Northern Rio Arriba Electric Cooperative. The ospreys prefer to nest on high, flat posts above the trees, with room for their five-foot-wide nests. Power line posts are perfect, which causes a problem.
“We’ve been very proactive in relocating the nests,” said John Blea, director of operation at NORA. “By doing that, we prevent outages, and we help keep the birds from being electrocuted.”
An osprey that nests on top of a power pole will leave for the winter and then often return to find its nest has been relocated to the top of a new pole, erected specifically for nesting. Blea said the company recycles old poles.
If You Go
Heron Lake’s Osprey Festival continues today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Heron Lake State Park west of Tierra Amarilla. Four or five easy-to-view nests will have viewing stations, spotting scopes and docents to tell the story of the soon-to-fledge birds. There will also be exhibits, workshops, guided boat trips and vendors. Contact the park at (575) 588-7470. The festival continues Sunday with a ride on the Cumbres & Toltect Scenic Railroad out of Chama with a state park naturalist. Call (888) 286-2737 or visit www.cumbrestoltec.com. OSPREY VITALS
LENGTH: About 2 feet
WINGSPAN: 4½ to 6 feet
WEIGHT: About 4 pounds
COLORS: A dark brown back hides the bird from predators. Its white belly matches the sky, disguising it to fish.
