September....

How can it be September already?  September first brings the beginning of the change here...leaves are starting to turn in some locations, Ospreys are harder to locate, and it's exciting when I can find a whole family, which I did at one nest today!  My focus these past few weeks have been those birds and nests that I have concerns about. I have been watching over the rehab birds carefully. Nothing has changed with them...the adult male is still seen occasionally sneaking into his territory when the female is not there, and she still watches for him and chases him away. The chicks seem to be doing allright tho we do see aggression between them, as they compete for food. The young osprey that was returned to her nest is still sticking very close to home...never far from the nest. The male chick and the adult female from this nest seem to be gone. The male here is attentive and is often nearby watching over this chick who has been thru so much.

I have been spending more and more time at a nest where one of our oldest males has been for many years. Since The 23 year old died earlier this year, this male has taken the lead, age wise, at 22 years old.  Sadly, I have not seen him in many weeks. At first I just assumed it was because he was busy fishing and my infrequent visits just happen to be timed when he was gone. But more recently I am seeing the female bringing all the fish, and it is time for her to leave, but she remains, apparently trying to care for her chicks single handedly. This male used to be a very attentive male, easily found in one of his favorite perches, but now I am unable to locate him. It is becoming increasingly clear that we may have lost him. It's so hard to not know what happened to him. 

I also received the sad news that our oldest banded female, 21 years old, has died. Her nest failed this year for reasons that were unclear to me...incubating one week and then gone the next. I have visited the nest often hoping to see her and her mate, but the nest remained empty. Then her band was discovered recently on the ground below the nest. There was no body found. I suspect she died a long time ago, and perhaps her death was the reason for the nest failure back in June. I have known both these birds for so long that they are like family to me. They both had long and very successful lives and it honestly feels like just yesterday that I first met them, read their bands and did drawings of their markings...but it was over 20 years ago. The memories of those early days flood my mind. 

As I checked nests today I stopped at another nest, hoping to locate all the chicks and was skunked on that effort, but I saw an adult sitting in a tree and I set the scope on him....ah, another one of my old friends! This fellow is now our oldest male at 21 years of age. It did my heart good to watch him, sitting quietly, snoozing, watching fish in the water and just peacefully watching over his territory, with no chicks hollering for his attention. I reviewed his life in my mind...so different from the other two males who we seem to have lost this year. This guy nested at only one nest as far as we know. When I first began this research, someone else was monitoring this nest and for several years he reported a banded male but said, " you will never be able to read that males band". To me, that was like throwing down the gauntlet! I was determined to get this band read. I can't STAND an unread band! I hiked out to his nest, sneaking around behind trees, so as not to frighten him away...but in the end I just walked out there, sat down and he showed me his band, and he has done that every year since! (These birds often cooperate with me.) He has had a variety of different females...I will have to look up his history and count his mates. He has produced many offspring. Another very reliable male. I pondered the losses this year, wondering if I will see him next spring. So many changes politically, so many people moving onto other phases of their lives, so many properties being sold, development changing the habitats, the banding being largely eliminated...it all makes me sad, frustrated that I don't have the money to do what I would like to for these birds, this research. What will 2016 bring? Will we find the help we need, will the right people show up, will people start to recognize the importance of maintaining these nest sites, habitats and continuing the research and banding? Time will tell. For now, we begin to say our goodbyes to our osprey friends...old and new.