Are you kidding me? You again?

Everyday in the field watching these birds I love so much is fascinating. I am out checking nests for hatching now, and I did confirm that some more eggs have hatched today. Still so exciting to watch those adults staring into the nest cup, tip toeing around the nestcup so carefully, feeding tiny bits of fish to the unseen little ones. Their attention has shifted whole heartedly from what's around them to what's beneath them. In the process of gathering data about hatching, I get distracted by other stuff too. As I watched one nest today, hoping for signs of hatch, there was a second pair of Ospreys flying around the nest, trying to land on the nest, and none of it seemed very aggressive. The incubating female did not get up and chase...the male did soar with the extra birds as if trying to escort them away from the nest. Eventually the party settled down at the nest and as I left I found the extra pair of Ospreys perching on a nearby cell tower. I put up the scope to see if they were banded. Are you kidding me? The male is one that I have now seen, this spring, at five different nests! In many different parts of the metro. I am still baffled about his story tho. He nested at the same nest for many years, successfully. Suddenly, for some reason he was displaced. He did produce a single chick at his nest last year and most "divorces" occur after a failed breeding season. That is not the case here, so I am baffled. But since I am watching so many nests, I do not always get all the details, the full story, on each nest. For some reason he is no longer at the nest he occupied for four years. He is galavanting all over the metro area, courting many different females and yet no mate or territory has caused him to settle. Today he was actually quite close to his natal nest. He did try to take that nest over when he first returned as a very young osprey. The females had changed there so he was not copulating with his mother, tho I guess that happens! But he was displaced there by the residential male, upon his late return one spring. That is when he moved to the nest he occupied for four years. And he was seen there this spring briefly. Hmmmmm. It's all so fascinating. None of these behavioral observations are possible if the birds are not banded. More about that later. Anyway, I am still so curious, so fascinated by these magnificent raptors. I love it when they baffle me, I love it when they teach me new things, when I have new behaviors to ponder...and I do ponder these things, putting together the pieces of the puzzle behaviorally. It all just adds to my understanding of these Ospreys. The way this male keeps showing up where I am, is pretty interesting. Trying to show me something about the way these birds move around.