The Scottish Ospreys from extinction to survival by Philip Brown

Being mindful of copyright Tiger I will look to see if I can find the website it was on. Meanwhile here are a couple of links to pics of the Mono Lake tufa (calcium carbonate) towers and osprey nests:

http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/nonscientific_adventures/Mono%20Lake.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billysbirds/1198184026/

Ah found it! Here it is. Well at least a link to a forum it is posted on. Hope they have permission from the photographer:

http://www.becerikli.net/threads/69920-karakartal-arkada%C5%9Flara-hepinize-ayr%C4%B1m-yok..

ChloeB said:

Ah found it! Here it is. Well at least a link to a forum it is posted on. Hope they have permission. I love this photo :)

http://www.becerikli.net/threads/69920-karakartal-arkada%C5%9Flara-hepinize-ayr%C4%B1m-yok..

Chloe   That is exactly the one I had in mind.  Thank you very much.

I rather like this one too. See http://egretsnest.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/osprey-year-bird-42/

Thus there are still ospreys that build on rocks in the water just like the Scottish ospreys of long ago. I believe the Baja ospreys can actually build nests on the ground.

Have now found the above photo's origin. The photographer is Steven Pinker and here it is on his site:

http://www.stevepinker.com/American-West/American-West-I/10707151_kWuPZ#745853821_yrFwF

How about this osprey nest in Australia. Built on the edge of a cliff:

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20082202-16941-2.html

and another:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UDYadS1I5jwKDj25jEnxlA

ChloeB  Those are some magnificent finds.

Here are some other interesting nests from Mexico. See http://www.rekel.nl/visarenden/vonk/islas_san_bonito.htm

Although not quite the same I love these nests. See http://www.rekel.nl/visarenden/mexico/mexosprey.htm

and   http://www.natureartists.com/artists/artist_artwork.asp?ArtistID=1099&ArtworkID=20098

Only 14 copies of Scottish Ospreys left I see. In practice a lot less as some of them are at silly prices.

Thanks ChloeB and Tiger  for the interesting pictures of osprey nests - this Group is very educational!
I do love the nest in the cactus ! I wonder how far it is to the nearest fishing place....??  
 Nesting on the ground seems rather risky, there can't be many predators around there.

Thanks Tiger, you have made some good finds yourself.

Love the artwork of Jon Janosik and those nests in the cacti are huge aren't they?

ChloeB said:

Have now found the above photo's origin. The photographer is Steven Pinker and here it is on his site:

http://www.stevepinker.com/American-West/American-West-I/10707151_kWuPZ#745853821_yrFwF

Oh that is a good find. Well done.

ChrisyB     You raise an interesting question as to how far the nest is from the fishing. Well Baja is a long finger of land (have a look on the map) and none of it is very far from water. Thus while I do not know where that nest is located I think it is not likely to be too far from water. We know from the Hailuoto nest in Finland that the nest can be far from fishing. When the ospreys arrive back in the spring there is lots of pack ice and the ospreys have to travel ever so far to get to liquid water.

Baja is a magical place. I saw the great solar eclipse of the sun from there on 11th July 1991. I saw it from a lovely little place called Todos Santos which did not even have a proper road until about 1985.

There are also lots of whales around Baja so that would please the whale watchers on the forum. I would have thought that southern Californians on the forum have been to Baja.