Weekend Waterview: Pontoon Ride for Lola + Osprey and Herons Nesting

Happy Sunday! We took our first pontoon ride yesterday. Normally we’re boating by late March or early April, but between the pollen and the rain this spring, we’re getting a late start.

Lola was only a few months old when we last boated in October.

She’s learning to get her sea (or lake ;) legs again.

She’s a fast learner. ;)

We always look forward to checking on the osprey nests on the lake. Osprey return to their same nest on Lake Norman in March, after wintering in Central and South America. They can log more than 160,000 migration miles during their 15-to-20-year lifetime.

They build their nests on manmade structures . . . channel markers, duck blinds, power poles and nest platforms designed especially for nesting.

We’ve even seen a osprey nesting on a boat. . . {insert *wince* here}

A little about Osprey according to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

Ospreys gravitate toward shallow fishing grounds, frequenting deep water only where fish school near the surface. Ospreys nest in a wide variety of locations, from Alaska to New England, Montana to Mexico, Carolina to California; their habitat includes almost any expanse of shallow, fish-filled water, including rivers, lakes, reservoirs, lagoons, swamps, and marshes. Whatever the location, Osprey nesting habitat must include an adequate supply of accessible fish within a maximum of about 12 miles of the nest; open, usually elevated nest sites free from predatory mammals such as raccoons, and a long enough ice-free season to allow the young to fledge.

Ospreys require nest sites in open surroundings for easy approach, with a wide, sturdy base and safety from ground predators (such as raccoons). Nests are usually built on snags, treetops, or crotches between large branches and trunks; on cliffs or human-built platforms. Usually the male finds the site before the female arrives.

Osprey nests are built of sticks and lined with bark, sod, grasses, vines, algae, or flotsam and jetsam. The male usually fetches most of the nesting material—sometimes breaking dead sticks off nearby trees as he flies past—and the female arranges it. Nests on artificial platforms, especially in a pair’s first season, are relatively small—less than 2.5 feet in diameter and 3–6 inches deep. After generations of adding to the nest year after year, Ospreys can end up with nests 10–13 feet deep and 3–6 feet in diameter—easily big enough for a human to sit in.

We spied a Great blue heron nesting in the top of tree on an this small island on the lake.

The nest looks like it’s at maximum capacity and could snap that branch any moment!

Lola was fascinated with the birds, just like Chloe was. . . *sniff*.

It’s looking like we’re in for a hot Memorial Day weekend. There were a lot of boaters on the lake yesterday and it felt like more like July than May, with the temperature soaring to 93 degrees.

Too dog gone hot for May in North Carolina!

Lola says she hopes you’re staying cool this weekend!

Thank you for your visit, sharing with:

 Between Naps on the Porch