Juvenile Osprey moving in to the tree next door. Seems to be eyeing my ducks?

[HostileMatron]

Hello. I'm wondering how worried I should be about my Rouens being attacked? As of this morning I have a juvenile osprey sitting at the top of a tree just watching my yard. Just far enough out that the ducks don't send to notice it, and I needed binoculars to identify it. I read the don't bother ducks, but I see in BYC that a couple chickens were attacked

My ducks are 7 months old and 1 year old. Almost full grown.

 

[Kiki]

What are you worried about?
It coming to attack your ducks or it bringing a disease in to your flock?

 

[HostileMatron]

What are you worried about?
It coming to attack your ducks or it bringing a disease in to your flock?

Attacking my ducks. Thankfully not much avian flu here. I don't normally have many birds trying to get into my yard. No food or water available for them and their path from the forest to the lake is a bit east of my yard

 

[Miss Lydia]

Any bird of prey might look at your ducks as an easy meal. Don’t know how you’d avoid it without keeping them closed up.

 

[picklestheduck]

I would say keep them in a safe area where an osprey couldn’t get in. Do you have a covered run?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I would keep my ducks locked up for the moment. Do you have a pond? Osprey usually eat fish but if there is an easier meal, a young poor hunter may be hungry enough to try something else.

 

[ruthhope]

Hello. I'm wondering how worried I should be about my Rouens being attacked? As of this morning I have a juvenile osprey sitting at the top of a tree just watching my yard. Just far enough out that the ducks don't send to notice it, and I needed binoculars to identify it. I read the don't bother ducks, but I see in BYC that a couple chickens were attacked

My ducks are 7 months old and 1 year old. Almost full grown.

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I live with osprey -- near the intra coastal waterway in NE Florida. We also have lots of red shouldered hawks. I doubt that an osprey would attempt to catch your [near] fully grown ducks. They really are fish eaters. If they are hungry they are more likely to go for frog,. toads and lizards than fully grown ducks.

I had a red tailed hawk try and take out a cardinal in my back yard about two and half years ago: the cardinal was injured but lived to tell the tail. [He is still in my garden with his mate and various juvenile offspring: I see his gray scar along his right flank and know it is him.] I think hawks are a greater danger than osprey as hawks can come down and break a duck's neck in one swoop. I have seen a hawk do that with a baby bunny and another with a squirrel. I am worried about red tailed and other hawks but not worried about osprey and my ducks.