Ospreys have returned and have started to nest on platforms across the city. When this Osprey arrived at the platform at MacLeod Trail and Highway 22x on April 24, he first had to evict a pair of Canada Geese who had thoughts of nesting there too. Photos by Joe Harley.
Joe also got some great shots of an Osprey with a fish south of Carburn Park. This is one of the pair that is nesting at the Lafarge platform along MacLeod Trail just south of Southland Park.
Pingback: The Osprey Return | The Chapel
This also happened spring of 2014. The osprey had no luck in evicting the geese at Macleod and 22x. Thankfully Enmax put up another pole 50-100 meters to the left of the first pole but not before the osprey made a nest atop a power pole just south of the platforms across the farmers field. I’ve enjoyed watching the osprey this year as always, happy birding everyone!
Pingback: Changing the Landscape: One Bag At a Time | The Chapel
Reblogged this on The Chapel and commented:
It’s 5:30 in the morning and I’m sitting here watching live webcams of eagles nesting and thought I’d look into the status of the nesting platforms in Calgary. I came upon this entry by Birds Calgary and these wonderful photographs by Joe Harley. I had seen this redundant diving of the Osprey trying to evict a goose. Good to see it captured so beautifully!
The Osprey were successful in evicting the geese. I watched the fight for space over a course of days. The Osprey are fishing and going about their business. It’s been awesome to watch. Thanks for the great photographs!
Great shots, Joe!
Also, last night I saw that the Ospreys had returned to their nesting platform on Memorial Drive in NW Calgary.
Amazing shots of what these two do best…fighting and getting food.
The osprey at 22X have not been able to evict the Canada geese. I have been to the nesting area this week and the geese are still there. I watched the Osprey try to evict them but the geese are not moving. A friend of mine has been there more often and the geese are still there. She has a picture of the osprey standing on one of the posts in the water. The geese are still on the nest.
Christine Sopczak
That’s interesting! I guess I assumed the Ospreys would be able to scare the Geese off, but Geese can be pretty stubborn when they’re nesting.
Bob Lefebvre