Memorial Day weekend...

On this holiday weekend I had the privilege of meeting up with three of my volunteers to spend a little time in the field together. I love when I get a chance to do this, so we can get to know each other better, answer questions, share information. I also managed to get a few more bands read on those difficult holdouts. I observed a few nests where hatching may be imminent. It's interesting to watch a male walking in circles on the nest, around the incubating female, with his head cocked to the side as if he is looking for and listening for those chicks. One male was also feeding his incubating female...perhaps practicing for feeding the chicks. A few posts back I shared a story about a pair of Ospreys who had built a lovely, large nest on a power pole in a period of one week. As I was watching them, a power company truck pulled up and with one long pole, pushed the nest off the power line and drove away.  I have looked for that pair of Ospreys for two weeks and finally found them early last week, happily settled in a new nest. They had apparently built yet another nest on another power pole that belonged to a different power company and that power company, Minnesota Valley Electric Coop, has erected a wonderful nestpole for them. The nest was even "furnished" with sticks to get them started. This female had been seen at three other nests before settling here, so the long, tumultuous effort to find a nest and a mate has finally ended happily. We are hoping she will lay eggs soon and they will successfully raise a family on this nest. So that, as they say, is the rest of the story! Special thanks to MVEC for their efforts!