Osprey hunting in early summer waters

The water off Gulfport Beach holds the morning light in layers, dark blue beneath and silver where the sun catches the surface. An osprey circles high above the shallows, wings steady against the offshore breeze. Early summer brings these threatened raptors to their most focused work: hunting to feed growing chicks back at the nest.

The osprey drops into a hover, wings beating hard to hold position fifty feet above the water. Its yellow eyes scan the depths for the dark shapes of mullet moving in loose schools through the grass beds. Mullet feed on algae and detritus, their blunt heads pushing through the water column as they filter nutrients from the sediment. They move predictably, following the tide and the warmth, making them reliable prey for a bird that must catch fish to survive. The osprey's talons are built for this work: reversible outer toes and curved spines on the pads that lock around slippery fish. Its nostrils close when it hits the water.

The bird folds its wings and drops. It strikes the surface with a splash that sends ripples across twenty feet of shallow water. For a moment it disappears beneath the surface, then emerges with powerful wingbeats, water streaming from its feathers. A mullet writhes in its talons, head pointed forward to reduce drag as the osprey labors toward shore. This is the currency of the nest: each fish represents another day of growth for the chicks that wait in the stick platform built high in a dead pine or on a channel marker. The female will tear the fish into strips, feeding the young until they are large enough to swallow whole prey.

Mullet schools move through these waters in patterns shaped by temperature and food availability. They spawn offshore in fall and winter, but spend the warm months in the shallows where young fish grow quickly on the abundant plant matter. The osprey knows these rhythms. Pairs that nest successfully here return to the same territories year after year, their hunting knowledge accumulated over seasons of watching these waters. They know where the mullet gather when the tide pushes in over the grass beds, where the schools move when the sun heats the shallows in the afternoon. Each successful hunt reinforces the bond between predator and place, between the bird's survival and the health of the fish populations that sustain it.

The osprey flies low over the water now, the mullet secure in its grip, heading toward the nest where its mate waits. The surface settles back to its morning calm, but the hunt will resume within hours. The chicks grow quickly in the subtropical heat, their demands constant through the long days of early summer. Listen for the osprey's sharp whistle carrying across the water, the sound that announces another successful strike in these productive shallows.