Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 21:16:34 -0600 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: marty cribb Subject: ospreys and territory MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Another possible reason for the earlier arrival of returning OSPREYS to = the Western Shore of the Bay as opposed to the Eastern Shore. Western = Shore is less salty therefore anadromous species returning to spawn = would enter the brackish and freshwater rivers, streams and creeks = sooner then they would return to the saltier more brackish rivers, = streams and creeks of the Eastern Shore. Also a greater variety and = numbers of fish live YEAR-ROUND in the less salty portions of the = Chesapeake and its tributaries. Around the Point Lookout area for = instance it is not uncommon for large schools of Alewife to remain all = winter long where some winters an Osprey or two can reliably be counted = on remaining. Also many of the landlocked tidal or marshy creeks hold = large numbers of forage type fish such as White Perch and Grass Carp. I = would hope we have an expert or two who may agree or disagree with my = theory. Good Birding, Marty Cribb, Smith Island, Md ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================