Thursday, July 9, 2015

Bully....

The chicks are growing and some are approaching fledging age, though we still have nests that are just hatching or have quite young chicks on them. (Every year it seems that some osprey sets a new record here for the latest egg laying!) I think our overall numbers will be very good this year since I am seeing so many nests with three chicks. Of course there is a long ways to go and so much can go wrong during the fledging phase. We already have a significant numbers of failed nests, with more to come I suspect.
Yesterday I watched some interesting behaviors on one nest with three large chicks, over 5 weeks old. All of them were quietly loafing when the male brought a stick to the nest. All of the nestlings got up and suddenly the smallest chick, with the least feather development, got very tall, neck extended, chest out and he began pushing one of the other, larger, chicks and pecking at her. The large chick just hung her head submissively, drooped her wings and would not move as the smaller chick behaved aggressively towards her. She finally slowly turned away, head down, until she was facing away from the other chick completely. Then she slowly stood up and looked at the other chick intensely. It made me laugh! That just caused the smaller chick to start the chest bumping and pecking again. Then he turned on the other chick as well. The female finally left the nest briefly and all of them laid back down. She came back on the opposite side of the nest, as if to break up the conflict by distraction. The smaller chick had an empty crop while the larger chicks had some food in their crops, so competition for food may have been the issue. This is a nest near an abundant food source and both adults were present today. Always interesting to watch the interactions.

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