While we are waiting...

Many people are asking about the chicks they watched last year. Most juveniles do not return to  their summer territories until they are two or three years old. I have seen a one year old osprey once in my 21 years of studying them. (I am beginning my 22nd season of osprey watching!) We do see quite a few two year olds and have published some observations about their behaviors. Most males return to within ten km of their natal nest, while females often go further away to nest.  This may be natures way of preventing inbreeding. Having said that, my observations indicate that some females do return to nest very near their natal nests. On the flip side we have had males nesting very far from their homes. We had a male from Michigan nesting here in Minnesota!  We have also had a female from Ontario nesting here, as well as females from Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin. Our females have shown up in other states also, such as Michigan. 

It is the urge to breed that usually brings them back from their wintering grounds and juvenile wanderings. The literature indicates that Ospreys do not breed until they are three years old, but I have seen two year old males attending nests where chicks have hatched. Since paternity tests have not been done we do not know if those chicks were genetic offspring of the attending male. I have documented quite a bit of extra pair copulation among Ospreys which could explain the chicks (I co-authored a paper about this which was published in the Journal of Raptor Research in June of 2008). Even more interesting is that I have documented a two year old female who laid eggs that produced chicks successfully! So they may be able to breed at younger ages than was previously thought. So there are some fun observations that have come from this research, to shed some light on osprey behaviors as we await their returns. You never know what you are going to see! That's what keeps me going!