> From: "Martyn Stewart" <>
> Subject: RE: Lake Oconee Wildlife
>
> How many Osprey's were there Walt, nice recording considering the filtering
Ma and Pa were doing relays out nailing fish around us for the chicks,
mostly Pa fishing. Or at least I thought of that one as Pa. I think
there are two chicks, maybe a third. Definitely saw two. No good vantage
point to get a good look up there. And we were not of enough interest
for even a look, we were ignored. The chicks are a fair ways along. Not
attempting flying yet, but not far from it.
The first bit with the SASS I'm pretty sure was feeding, one adult
there. The two types of call section I'm not sure, but it was the same
adult. At the end you have an adult give two peeps as it launches off.
Then it circled back close to the nest and gave another call series
before heading out for another fish. One adult was often fishing and
just bringing the fish back for the other to feed not evenly split.
The freeway was only about a mile north of this spot, not much hope of a
quiet time there. As it was a weekday there were gaps between the boats.
And lots of airplanes on their way to/from Atlanta. Sorry about the
filtering. Note also that from my location the Telinga was pointed
upward, so did not pick up a lot of the background birds.
The lake is stuffed with Ospreys. When they first built the lake, which
was not that long ago, someone had a silly idea. They left all the
forest, thinking it would somehow survive and you could fish in the
woods. Well, live trees lasted less than a year, I've talked to folks
and it was magical at first. Then became very hard to navigate for the
floating snags, and now is more stable. It still has large areas of
visible snags, many of which are pretty tall above the water. The chart
recorder shows underwater snags almost everywhere, often the tops just
down deep enough to not be hit by outboards. You still have to be alert,
though floating snags are not all that common. The lake is over 25 miles
long, max depth 95', not more than about a mile wide at the most
anywhere. Several arms to it, numerous small inlets. With all those
ready made nest spots and lots of fish in the lake the Ospreys love it.
There are hundreds of nests, if not more, they are everywhere. Plenty of
spots where you could sit and easily count a couple dozen nests in sight
and not that far away. The lake is also lined with houses, though not
completely. And full of boaters, each house has at least one boat
typically, pontoon boats are very popular, and there are quite a few
launch ramps. The Ospreys are well used to the boaters. You would have
to practically tie up to their tree (many are out in the water) and
maybe climb it to get their attention. If there were less boaters, and
the lake was not crossed by several highways, including I-20, it would
be quite a place for recording. There is a large wildlife refuge at the
Dam end, but no good launches for my pontoon boat at that end. So, it's
a hour and a half at full throttle getting there from my usual launch. I
need to explore it more, it's got potential. Lots of small inlets choked
with snags. I've explored the upper end of the lake quite a bit with a
small canadian guide boat we used to have. The pontoon could not get
into some of that as it's outboard sticks down a little deeper. Though
it does quite well in shallow water.
Walt
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