Still here!

A strong cold front came thru with gusty north winds on Tuesday night and Wednesday. I thought this might carry away a lot of our friends...reports have come in of empty nests. I went out to check some nests myself and was surprised to find chicks on 8 out of the 11 nests I visited! All chicks appeared to be females and were hollering for food. I saw three males bring fish and a few more perching nearby while the youngster ate on the nest. It's always interesting to see which chicks are still around, counting heads, reading bands on the few that are banded. I try to confirm successful fledging and my last bit of data collection involves seeing which chicks have survived and remain in their territories just prior to migration. Also fun to observe the males behaviors as they wrap things up...flying around with a fish to see if there are any hungry chicks still around. I was also noticing how much the juveniles eye color has changed since they had that intense, rusty color of very young ospreys. Now I am seeing gold eyes...not quite the bright yellow of most adults, and some chicks eyes could be described now as rose gold....just that hint of rosiness left. Pretty. I also notice how the buffy colored tips of the dark feathers are becoming less obvious as the feather edges wear a bit. Many of the chicks seem larger than the adult makes who are feeding them! They have definitely been packing on the pounds! I enjoy watching them in these late season days...drinking in the details, filling the last few pages of my 200 page field journal. Lots of data to sift thru duriing the long cold days of winter. I will go check on our youngest chicks this weekend!