{"id":126678,"date":"2019-09-12T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=126678"},"modified":"2019-09-13T15:34:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T19:34:55","slug":"slideshow-osprey-vs-goldfish-is-no-contest-at-lake-andrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/09\/12\/slideshow-osprey-vs-goldfish-is-no-contest-at-lake-andrews\/","title":{"rendered":"Slideshow: Osprey vs. goldfish at Lake Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"

A hungry Bates Bobcat knows to make tracks to Commons. For a peckish local osprey, Lake Andrews offers bountiful helpings of its favorite food: fish. Specifically, goldfish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around 10 a.m. on Aug. 22, Bates Communications photographer Theophil Syslo spied an osprey perched atop a Garcelon Field light stand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through his camera viewfinder, Syslo saw the raptor munching a goldfish from the campus pond. “And I figured it would go for more.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Syslo tagged along to chronicle the show, and here’s what happened:<\/span><\/p>\n

10:03:25 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

Atop a light stand at Garcelon Field, the osprey finishes its first helping of Lake Andrews goldfish.<\/p>\n

Goldfish have long populated the campus pond. They were there before the pond’s 1998 draining and restoration, and reappeared soon afterward.<\/p>\n

We assume they were introduced by students. Fish being the only pets allowed in residences, it’s easy to imagine a goldfish going from, say, Adams Hall to Lake Andrews.<\/p>\n

\n

10:05:28 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

Having eaten one goldfish, the osprey takes flight for Lake Andrews, just 500 feet away.<\/p>\n

A bird expert who often does fieldwork on remote seal islands,<\/a> Bates Professor of Biology Don Dearborn appreciates this local bird show: “It’s super cool!”<\/p>\n

He adds, “Especially since the Puddle is so popular \u2014 noontime walkers, students studying \u2014 it’s great that people have a chance to see nature in action.”<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:23 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

Perched in a spruce tree along the shore, the osprey scans the water below for fish. Osprey are the only hawk species in North America that eat live fish almost exclusively.<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:46 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

The osprey dives toward its prey and, just before hitting the water, “repositions to land feet-first for prey capture,” says Dearborn. “As a side consequence, they typically penetrate a meter or less into the water.”<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:49 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

Shedding water, the osprey emerges from the pond with a goldfish. Barbed pads on the soles of an osprey’s feet help grip slippery fish.<\/p>\n

Like most raptors, an osprey has four long toes\u2014three in front and one in back. When it reaches for a fish, one front toe swivels toward the rear, effectively positioning two toes in front and two in back to create twin grasping talons: perfect for holding a fish tightly.<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:52 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s said that when an osprey has a fish in its claws, it orients the fish head first for less wind resistance, though that doesn’t appear to be the case here.<\/p>\n

Repositioning the fish “is perhaps less important for short-distance flights, given the risk of dropping the fish during repositioning,” Dearborn says. “On longer flights, such as back to a distant nest, the reorientation is likely to produce valuable energy savings.”<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:53 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

As the osprey ascends from the water, it shakes itself off, shedding water easily thanks to oily feathers common among aquatic birds and many terrestrial birds.<\/p>\n

\n

10:09:55 a.m.<\/h4>\n
\"Theophil<\/a>

Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n

See you again, osprey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch what happens when an osprey goes for the gold at Lake Andrews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":126729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[14,217,223],"tags":[2995,10890],"class_list":["post-126678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-science-technology","category-slideshow","tag-donald-dearborn","tag-lake-andrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126678"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127058,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126678\/revisions\/127058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}