Kootenay Lake has a high proportion of Ospreys and for the next month they will be mating.
Normally, it is a fairly orderly affair where the male flies in and descends onto the back of the female as is shown in the first picture taken nearly two years ago.
Yet, the Ospreys mating this morning could be described as acrobatic.
Ospreys mating on May 31st 2024 at Taghum.
Ospreys mating at Harrop April 28th 2026. While the mating started normally like the one above, at first they they did not succeed it making contact with their cloacae. Their stance then became to more and more acrobatic as they attempted cloacal contact. At the stage shown, it took me a minute or two to even figure out what appendages were what. The male’s head is just to the left of centre while the female’s head is to the lower right, and to the left of her legs. The male’s wings are obvious in that they go up to the left. The female’s wings go to the middle left and middle right. The female’s tail goes to the upper right and the males tail is barely visible to the middle right. The crucial thing is the cloacae, which is to the back and unseen here. The jockeying for position lasted about 5 seconds and the cloacal kiss was another 5 seconds. So in about 10 seconds they had mated and separated.
