What an excellent book! I watch the streaming Osprey webcam everyday throughout the year, and learning more about why the website was created was very informative. The photographs are wonderful as well as the narrative. It was good to read about the steps are being taken to protect these magnificent birds. I highly recommend this book. ( )

I keep a "life list" of birds that I've seen, and my husband and I enjoy treks in the woods to search for new sightings. There is an osprey platform at one of our favorite places where we have watched a pair nesting and seen them feeding their chicks.

Scientists have used tools such as banding and web cams to study the habits of these birds. For instance, we know that ospreys mate for life, during migration they can wander many, many miles before they return to their previous nesting place and that they compete with eagles for fish.

But the research does more than tell us about this bird. At the Superfund site at the Clark River in Montana, ospreys are helping scientists in the cleanup of industrial and mining operations. Because the osprey chicks eat fish from the river, the level of contaminants in their blood can monitor their progress.

Written in an accessible style, and illustrated with color photos, the book is aimed at middle and high school students. It's part of the "Scientists in the Field" series to encourage science as a vocation.
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This visual nonfiction book contains important messages about species conservation and the scientific importance of ospreys as indicator species. Ospreys are powerful indicators of habitat health. Through their presence, absence, and reproductive success, ospreys reflect the health and balance of the natural landscape. In the case of the Missoula, Montana, ospreys have been instrumental in assisting with scientific research and the restoration of a landscape exposed to toxic pollution through mining. This book teaches students about the consequences of human behavior, the devastating effects of pollution, habitat loss, fragmentation, and modification, and the importance of conservation. All species play a role and are an essential component in balanced, healthy, and functioning ecosystems.

This book was awesome. It was a book about a group of scientists that take care and help to preserve ospreys. Throughout the book, it has many photos of Osprey and their journeys through life. It even follows a few specific osprey that were hurt and it shows how they let them heal and tracked them thereafter. My favorite part about this book is their vivid images of Osprey up in their nests. It is cool to see the world from an Osprey's point of view. I could see myself using this book as a preface to a nature walk (where seeing osprey's is a likely thing) or as we learn about what it is a scientist really does. ( )

This book was very long, full of information but very long. It would be good for a student to use for a report or a project/assignment. It starts out talking about how ospreys are good fishers, the dangers they face from the environment, learning where they go, and many other facts about osprey. The pictures in this book are great and there are many photos on every page showing what the text is talking about giving you a visual.