We are very busy confirming successful fledging of the chicks on all nests. In the process I have stumbled upon several new nests, or nests I didn’t know about! It still remains interesting at this stage of the breeding season. I came upon a new nest being built in the past few weeks and the banded male is from Iowa. It’s a little unusual for a male to travel that far from his fledging site, tho we have had an occasional male from a different state in the past.
I can also share with my long term readers that the male who successfully raised three chicks on his own last year, after his mate died /disappeared , has successfully fledged one chick with his new mate this year. It was a joyful experience to watch this young chick, whose parents are both so attentive, survive to fledging age. Last years test of his parental skills has turned him into a very devoted, reliable parent. Almost every time I visited the nest, he was there.
I can also share that the two remaining chicks on the Arboretum cam nest have both fledged successfully. We are still sad about the tragic collision that caused such severe injuries to the third chick that he had to be euthanized. I believe that these sorts of accidents happen more frequently that we realize. Once a chick fledges, they can get into so many different kinds of trouble away from the nest. We were lucky that the chick was found quickly, but the outcome was still a sad one.
That came on the heels of another tragic situation that we could not fully understand. I found a chick on a nest with no adults attending to it. It was a nest where we thought we had a monitor watching, but sometimes a volunteer loses interest and does not inform us that they will no longer be visiting the nest. I watched for 3.5 hours and saw no adult. I sent another monitor, Trusty Barb, the next day and she found an adult female perched nearby and the chick flapping its wings, preparing for fledge. So I thought perhaps something had happened to the male and the female was caring for the chick alone. That might explain her absence when I was there. We also met a lovely gentleman, Bob, who walked his dog near this nest and he became quite interested in this chick. The three of us were there over a period of days and saw several adults, male and female, near or on the nest. The chick was seen eating once. But my own observations and questions to the other monitors determined that the adults there were not providing any parental care, not reliably feeding the chick. There were behavioral clues that they were not the parents of the chick but were just Ospreys looking for a territory. The chick seemed distressed by the presence of the male. By the time we realized all this, the chick seemed to be quite weak, and then it disappeared. It was probably predated. We were heartbroken to watch this little guy waiting for food that didnt come. We have no idea what may have happened to the parents, since they do not just abandon their offspring. I wish we had figured it out sooner so we could have rescued him, but the nest itself was problematic since it is on a transmission line in the water. It would have required both state and federal permits to “take” the chick and Xcel energy would have had to climb the structure to rescue the chick. We simply were not able to coordinate all this in time. That little one won our human hearts and moved us to tears. Sometimes we just cant save a chick, and that brought the three of us a great deal of sadness. But, as I have said before, I am glad that I still care enough about each and every bird to shed a tear over the losses. And I am glad I have some people working with me whose hearts are so big that they also care enough to weep and to lose sleep over these precious birds that bring so much meaning into our lives. Thanks to Barb Ankrum and Bob Holly.
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