PHOTOGRAPHING THE NEST LIFE OF 

 THE OSPREY 



By Capt. C. W. R. Knight 



With Ilhistrafions from Photographs by the Author 



BECAUSE of the depredations of the 

 egg-collecting community of Great 

 Britain, the osprey, or fish hawk 

 {Pandion haliaetus), has not appeared on 

 the list of British nesting birds for the last 

 twenty years. 



At one time this unique bird nested an- 

 nually in certain of the wilder parts of 

 Scotland, but was ultimately doomed to 

 extinction by the systematic and persistent 

 robbing of the nests. 



Recently I stood on the shore of a beau- 

 tiful lake in Inverness-shire and looked 

 across the rippling waters at the tiny island 

 on which the last pair of British ospreys 

 strove pathetically, year after year, to rear 

 their young. 



How the collectors could have managed, 

 as they did, to get away with the eggs is 

 almost inconceivable ; for, in the first place, 

 they must have run a considerable risk of 

 being seen as they crossed the water to 

 reach the island, and to do so in darkness 

 would have been well-nigh impossible; 

 then barbed wire was entwined around the 

 trunk of the tree, which would not tend 

 to simplify operations ; and, lastly, the tak- 

 ing of the eggs must have been accom- 

 panied by a considerable degree of danger, 

 for the huge nest was built at the top of 

 an apparently dead branch that stood out 

 from the top of the tree, and it is difficult 

 to imagine how any one could have reached 

 over it. 



Nevertheless, the eggs were taken, and 

 in spite of barbed wire, padlocked boats, 

 and a watcher who was specially employed 

 to guard the nest. It is recorded that on 

 one occasion the robbery took place at 

 dawn, in a snowstorm, and the enthusiast, 

 who undressed on the shore of the lake, 

 swam across to the island, and got away 

 with the one egg that the nest contained, 

 must at least have been, if unscrupulous, 

 a man of some determination. 



THE MOST FAMOUS OSPREY COLONY 



Two summers ago I had the good for- 

 tune to spend some weeks on Gardiners 

 Island, off the eastern end of Long Island, 



where, because of the interest and con- 

 sideration of Mr. Lion Gardiner, who 

 owns it, and Mr. Clarence Mackay, who 

 leases it, the most famous colony of os- 

 preys in the world enjoys a primeval free- 

 dom. 



The birds that return each year to the 

 island for the purpose of rearing their 

 young probably exceed 300 pairs, and, be- 

 cause they have never been disturbed, they 

 construct their nests in every conceivable 

 situation. One sees the huge piles of 

 sticks, branches, and rubbish at the tops of 

 inaccessible trees, on bushes, buildings, 

 walls, the roots of upturned trees, seashore 

 wreckage, even on the seashore itself. 



INTIMATE STUDIES OE NESTING BIRDS 



My object was to try for some really inti- 

 mate studies of the home life of the osprey, 

 and from such a vast collection of nests, 

 many of them in satisfactory photographic 

 positions, I had difficulty in deciding which 

 would be the best for my purpose. In the 

 end I selected one that seemed to possess 

 several promising features : it had a dark 

 background, to my mind a most important 

 asset; its owners seemed to be of a less 

 distrustful disposition than most of the 

 others; there were three well-incubated 

 eggs in the nest — a desirable stage at which 

 to commence operations ; and, lastly, there 

 was what we regarded as a mascot on the 

 nest in the shape of rag doll's head ! 



Ospreys are much addicted to the habit 

 of bringing to their nests various decora- 

 tive oddments, such as the dried carcasses 

 of birds, crab shells, pieces of board, dere- 

 lict shoes, bits of clothing, and so on. Such 

 treasures, generally washed up by the tide, 

 are picked up in the osprey's feet as it 

 swings by, and so conveyed to the nest 

 (see illustration, page 249). 



One of the most interesting curios that 

 I discovered on an osprey's nest was a 

 book called "Lucille, Bringer of Joy." (We 

 at once christened the parent osprey "Lu- 

 cille," in the hope that she would be a 

 bringer of joy by allowing us to get some 

 nice pictures.) Among the pages of this 



247 



