Duckling on Menu for Osprey

I was sitting on the deck with Chico, enjoying the afternoon at the pond. An osprey circled the pond and landed in the fir tree next to our deck.

I grabbed the camera for an ill-exposed snap before it dove to the pond, where a mamma mallard was cruising with her babies. Mamma put up a huge fuss, squawking and flapping her wings, but in a flash, the osprey was on top of them with a splash.

This seems unusual behavior, because the osprey diet is 99% fish. But the fish in our pond are smallish and few, and a baby duck might appear an easy snack. From the fuss by the ducks on the water, it seems clear they considered their young to be targets. Later, a mamma duck was circling along the bank of the pond, plaintively calling for her young from amongst the reeds and grasses. So it is likely that some got disappeared.

Chico didn't seem too concerned, although the osprey interrupted my feeding him some grass seed (long grass stems from the lawn gone to seed).

Aside: David gave me a book about budgies for my birthday. I read that their natural diet is grass seed. Sure enough, Chico goes nuts for the stuff and knows just what to do with it.

When the pond excitement was over, Chico and I resumed where we left off on the grass stems.

Later, Debby saw an osprey land in a fir across the pond. It was a long distance away, but the late afternoon lighting and darker background were photographically easier to work with. A mamma mallard and ducklings were still in the center of the pond, but tree bird seemed uninterested. Eventually, two crows chased it off.