2020 Limited Edition Collectors Ornament

The seventeenth annual Christmas in St. Michaels Limited Edition Collectors Ornament recognizes another natural Chesapeake icon, the osprey. The piece was adapted from an original drawing by local artist and graphic designer Scott Sullivan.

Ospreys feed almost exclusively on live fish. Their whistling or chirping call, distinctive flight profile and heavily flapping wingbeats make them easy to spot. Their huge nests sit atop channel markers and piers, on utility poles and nest platforms. Nests are distinctive, measuring about a meter in diameter. Ospreys return to Maryland in mid-March from winter homes in Central and South America, many traveling more than 160,000 miles in a 15-to-20-year lifetime.

Ospreys are monogamous, staying with the same partner for life and typically use the same nest as in previous years. Egg laying and incubation occur mid-April to late May. After 4-5 weeks the young are born and fed fish by the parents until late summer when they are able to fly and fish independently.