I work out of a small private marina, across the basin is an Osprey nest with the same occupants year after year, they show no fear of us and I squeak back at them when I come and go...I also have a "pet" seagull that wants a bunker in the morning, then follows me around begging for more....couple weeks ago I threw a bunker up on the walk for it and out of no where the osprey swoops in and steals it, lol,...I was always under the impression ospreys only ate what they caught...

Well now it's become a daily habit, the osprey sits on the flagpole yards and watches,I toss the fish onto the walk and it comes swooping in and grabs it off the ground on the fly 15 feet away and goes off and has breakfast, lol...

Never heard of this happening before, anywhere, ...Just thought some of you would get a kick out of it....

Predatory birds are always ready for a free easy meal, as a kid I had a red tail that would wait for me to drop it a skinned rat every day, nowadays at work we have an eagles nest about a half mile from our base but they come and sit on a cell tower on the back of the parking lot, a few years ago I was skinning rats on the tailgate of my truck when I heard a thump and there was Mr or maybe Miss eagle sitting on the top looking me over, then he/she flopped down to the pile of skinned rats walked through them giving them a look see then picked one, grabbed it and flew back up to the cell tower top, that went on all winter

As for ospreys only eating what they catch I know of several fishermen that have had one grab a fish they had laying on the shore or dock

They seem to loose their fear of people real fast when free food is concerned

That is an awesome story!!!

I got one similar. Years ago I use to fish a lot on the Yellowstone from early spring till middle of June. There were always some pelicans in a small cove. I would catch a fish and one bird would come in pretty close and watch. I started cleaning them right away and threw the parts in the water towards the big bird. Eventually everytime I showed up it would come in and wait for me to catch and throw the parts in. It would get so close it would catch the throw away parts right out of the air. He was around for two season then never saw him again,

Cool story gcs!!!

"My" seagull follows the boat as i work, it's not content to eat the old discarded bait, it sits on a spare crab pot up in the bow and waits for the newly picked pot to be put on the table, then it hops onto that pot and wants a handout, I'll break off a piece and hand it to him, or he tries to take the whole thing out of my hand, constantly playing tug of war, lol, this is within inches of me, the black back seagulls wait till my back is turned and swoops in and grabs a fish out of the bait tray on the fly....I have to cover the tray to keep them out...

Don't ever let anyone say birds are stupid, lol, they have quite a capacity to learn,,

I've seen osprey steal fish from other osprey. Osprey are always trying to steal each others catch. Eagles too.

I bet the seagull doesn't put up much of a fight over the osprey claiming it's breakfast.