"COLONIAL BEACH, Va. - It was a glorious spring here on the lower Potomac River in 2023 for ospreys and for the townsfolk like Joanie and Barry Millward who applaud their annual return from the tropics and thrill to watch them dive for fish.
This bird of prey, called a fish hawk by some, is known along shorelines from Japan to Australia, from India and the Strait of Hormuz to much of Europe and North America. “Ospreys and people have been overlapping since there were people,” said Alan Poole, author of two books about Pandion haliaetus.
In 2023, when Joanie began the Virginia Osprey Foundation out of their cottage at Colonial Beach, she observed robust production of 55 osprey chicks from 36 active nests around the community. Baywide, ospreys were continuing their heartening comeback from the dark days of DDT — from a historic 1972 low of about 1,500 nesting pairs to an estimated 10,000-12,000 pairs now throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.
Then, a sudden and mysterious population crash: Only five chicks reached adulthood in 2024, eight in 2025. Young ospreys were seen walking aimlessly, dazed and apparently starving. There were fish crows stealing osprey eggs as females left them in search of food the males could no longer provide. Adults were eating their dead babies."
