A crowd turned out for the annual Flaming Gorge Osprey Watch on Saturday. In fact, DWR conservation outreach manager Tonya Kieffer reports that the event was one of their best held this year. “We had 128 viewers and more birds than we could count,” shares Kieffer, noting that at least 6 birds were consistently present and flying around. It was a treat to watch as the adults flew from their nests and even skimmed along the water. Over their 10 to 15 year lifespan, osprey can log over 160,000 migratory miles. “They’re the only hawk in North America that eats a diet that’s almost exclusively fish,” says Kieffer. “And Flaming Gorge draws osprey like a magnet: the largest breeding colony in Utah, and one of the largest osprey populations in the interior part of the western United States is found at the reservoir.”
