A Sandy Hook photographer with an eye for wildlife and the human impact on the natural world earned an award from Living Lakes Canada for taking a photo of an osprey near Lake Winnipeg.
Leslie Mehner took a picture of the majestic fish-eating bird of prey with a piece of plastic intertwined within the branches of its nest. Her photo underscores the negative impact humans can have on wildlife.
Mehner, who is a seasonal resident, entered the photo in Living Lakes Canada’s 2023 Lake Biodiversity Photo Challenge and earned a Judges’ Special Mention Award.
“I go around and try to catch the osprey in their various nests and that one was full of junk,” said Mehner. “It’s on a manmade platform and the birds add to the nest every year. This year they added the plastic. My assumption is that it wasn’t some human adding all the garbage to the nest; it’s the birds themselves building up their nest after winter.”
She took the photo on the outskirts of Winnipeg Beach, she said. At the beginning of spring, the plastic wasn’t there. But when she arrived later in the season, she spotted the garbage.
“It does upset me. It’s indicative of what you see on the beaches out here right through to Gimli. People just leave their trash on the beach. They come for the day and don’t clean up after themselves,” said Mehner. “And you can see how this affects nature. That is their habitat and it’s full of human junk. Our garbage.”
Osprey are raptors that live along rivers, lakes, marshes and coastlines across Canada. They feed mostly on fish. The birds fly over water plunging in feet-first to grasp fish with their talons. Osprey populations declined in the mid-twentieth century from pesticide use, but they’ve made a comeback in many parts of North America, according to the National Audubon Society.
Mehner said the plastic in the nest is what likely caught the judge’s eye.
“Plastic pollution is really serious. It can break down and get into the osprey’s food sources and our own bodies,” said Mehner. “The plastic was on the outside of the nest and I don’t know what the inside looks like.”
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous in the environment including in lakes and oceans. After it breaks down, it can end up being ingested by birds that may then go on to develop plasticosis, the scarring of their digestive tracts which affects their ability to digest food, according to recent scientific studies. It can also damage internal organs.
Mehner said she decided to enter the osprey photo in the contest to raise awareness of the issue of human garbage and after she also saw a red-winged blackbird bird entangled in an angling line that someone left behind after fishing in a creek.
Living Lakes Canada is a B.C.-based non-governmental organization that enhances the protection and restoration of watersheds across Canada and promotes collaboration and education to improve water stewardship.
To view all the winning entries in its biodiversity photo contest, visit Living Lakes Canada online at livinglakescanada.ca
