Wednesday, August 7, 2013

After the storm...

I checked nests after the storm last night and the nests I visited on the western and northern side all seemed fine. I found more chicks fledged and I noticed that the leaves are already starting to change. Seems early. I had an interesting few hours at one of the nests whose original male was tending to two nests. There was an over abundance of ospreys flying around near the nest...five at one time. They returned several times, chirping, circling, socializing, with no apparent aggression. The most interesting part was that one of these visiting males was doing a sky dance, a part of courtship behavior, high in the sky above the nest with a fish in his talons. The chicks were food begging much of the time I was there. It seemed as if the female was hesitant to leave her chicks to get some food with all the extra ospreys in the vicinity. When things quieted down at one point, she left. It was during her absence that the sky dancing male with the fish landed on the nest. It was NOT her former mate. Tho the chicks were hungry, one of them lunged at the male...I wonder if it was to grab the fish or to suggest that he leave. Leave was what he did. The female returned with a fish 23 minutes after she left and she was followed by an unidentified male. He did not land. The sky dance started up again above the nest, and that male came back and landed on the nest while the female was there. She did not attack...there was a raucous arising of food begging by all, which seemed to scare him off again. So it seems she is attracting some new, potential mates. I did not identify her former mate during all this commotion. This all must be stressful for her. The chicks are doing allright, tho hungry.

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