Takin the long view of on osprey on this Lyon Street Bridge lamp post on May 22, 2024.
About this time last year, an osprey got public attention by regularly having his fish lunch on top of the tallest lamp post in the middle of the Lyon Street Bridge. This year the bird is back.
One day this week I saw a blur overhead as I drove across the bridge. I thought it might have been a bird diving off the lamp and plunging toward the river. The next day I went back to see if the bird was there. It was.
Actually, I don’t know whether this was the same osprey as in June 2023. In fact, when I took the bike halfway up the bridge on Wednesday, one bird was sitting on the light fixture while another circled the spot, came in for a landing but didn’t stay.
There seemed to be some back and forth between the two. Maybe they were a pair, and maybe not. Perhaps they were rivals instead, competing for the same perch to watch for fish in the water below.
You’d think wild birds like that would try to avoid all that noisy traffic on the bridge and find a tall tree in a quiet stretch of the Willamette River instead. But evidently the lamp post offers an advantage not apparent to the rest of us.
Anyway, the osprey action makes driving across the Lyon Street Bridge more entertaining than it otherwise would be. To catch it you have to look up — for just a second though. Any longer and the result might be a rear-end crash. (hh)
Osprey No. 2 comes in for a visit.
But it was not exactly welcomed with open wings.
Those pictures are just great, Hasso. Thanks!
Ospreys are whiter than most raptors and listed in the Audubon Field Guide. John James Audubon enslaved people.
Applying the “Hartman” bias to your news report we can assert that Ospreys, and those who write about them, are racists.
You are hereby cancelled.
What? I like ospreys. Tell me? Am I racist.??
I like Hasso Herring and white Ospreys Too
Nice pictures, glad to see them posted.
Thank you Mr. Hasso Herring,
For keeping an eye on the pulse of our dear little town and then reporting to the community. My husband and I are native to Albany, 68 and 72 years. He always asks me if I’ve heard from you on Facebook?
I really enjoyed this piece. I/we always watch for the bird(s), cautiously, as I/we drive over the bridge. Thanks!!!
Well we are encroaching on his habitat.