I Love Osprey

Debra Keirce

$995.00

I Love Osprey is an original oil painting by  Debra Keirce.  The art measures 12″ x 12″ with the  frame measuring  14″ x  14″,  frame included.

*******************************************************************************************Osprey - they're baaaaaaack! And that is such a good thing. 

 They tend to come back year after year, the male and female mating for life. They spend the spring and summer on the Carolina shores, and head to South America for fall and winter. They've witnessed humans living along the Carolina shores for well over a thousand years. 

 After peregrine falcons, ospreys are the most widely distributed birds of prey in the world. They occur on every continent except Antarctica. But by the 1960's, use of the pesticide DDT wreaked havoc on the environment, especially exclusive fish-eaters like these ospreys. North American osprey populations, along with that of many of our other great birds of prey, were threatened by extinction. Their eggshells thinned from pesticides and their young could not survive.

In the United States, DDT was banned in 1972. Then, the nation’s fish and wildlife agencies constructed wooden nesting platforms designed specifically for ospreys throughout most of our coastal estuaries and marshlands. As a result, today's osprey populations in the United States are booming. 

This is one of the tales of human intervention that has a happy ending. There are many wild animals who call the east coast home, and their adaptations are so fragile. Feeding an apple to a wild horse on the Outer Banks will likely bind up its digestive system and result in its death. The greatest threat to sea turtle survival is human activity. They drown in fishing gear, get hit by boats, and people disturb their nesting beaches. Whenever possible, it's important for us to enjoy the abundant wildlife at a distance, and without any interference.


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