This story was originally published in April 2025.
BDN Contributor David Small, who often shares his wildlife photography with readers, took these amazing photographs of ospreys, fishing in the Narramissic River in Orland.
“Every spring, I’d begin making trips to Orland and to the dam on the Narramissic River, trying to catch the alewife run, usually during half incoming tide. On this morning, it worked out great. I caught ospreys (fish hawks) arriving for breakfast,” Small said.
Maine has a lot of ospreys and has never listed them as endangered or threatened, unlike in other northeastern states, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Ospreys and bald eagles like similar nesting sites, both of which build big nests out of not very hospitable looking sticks. Ospreys are smaller and build nests in high places, such as tops of trees, utility poles, cell towers and navigation markers.
One major difference between ospreys and eagles in flight is that the osprey flies with its wing tips pointed downward. You can see them hover above the water, then dive for the fish they have spotted, DIF&W said.
Ospreys are more efficient hunters in open water and fast currents, but eagles are better at stealing the food from the smaller raptor.
Sometimes, osprey nest building can interfere with electric and cell phone infrastructure. Versant each year maintains more than 25 nests on taller poles they install to attract the birds there instead of where they can cause a problem.
Versant has set up cameras on a couple of them for livestreaming.
