The sight of an Osprey hitting the water is genuinely breathtaking. A huge bird, perhaps even awkward in some circumstances, it turns into a perfect aerodynamic dart the moment before it strikes the water to grab a fish. And why shouldn't it be such a good fisherman? It is, after all, the only bird on our continent that survives solely on live fish. While a lot of people know the Osprey for this spectacle, it's also renowned for its remarkable migration. An Osprey might fly from Brazil to Central Canada and back every year of its life. In California, we get a lot of wintering Ospreys along our coast, roughly from the Bay Area south. In the spring, they begin to move northward, breeding in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, even Alaska. But if you look at the maps, we're also getting a lot of birds coming through California from much further south. This is a terrific bird, and this author is thankful for the opportunity to share this great video about its fishing abilities:

(photo by Robert Burton/USFWS)