Still a few ospreys around.....

As our Osprey season begins to wind down, I savor the opportunity to spend some time searching for the remaining birds, listening to their food begging, watching their behaviors, reading some silver bands and re reading some color bands on our beloved Dads. Many nests are empty but I was surprised at how many ospreys I was able to locate today. I intended to spend half a day with the ospreys, but of course, I was out there all day. I was so happy to see a few of my favorite banded males, still attending to a remaining chick.
Last week I returned to the nest where the long time male had been hit and killed by a car. The nest had five ospreys flying around for hours! The neighbors reported it was the same the day before too. In addition there was an unbanded adult male in a tree watching it all. Lots of circling, chirping and occasionally trying to land on the nest, which caused another adult to chase him off. As I watched carefully, they appeared to be unbanded adult males. I heard one juvenile voice in the mix. It’s amazing how quickly other ospreys figured out that this was an undefended territory now. I pondered how it appeared differently to these birds, from a nest where the family has migrated away. There appeared to be at least one chick still there, with no adult male defending or feeding that youngster. I believe there were lots of subtle signals that caused all this commotion and testing by these adults. Tho this situation breaks my heart, I do find any circumstance like this interesting to watch. I remain so curious about behaviors. And just to be able to leisurely hang out today with some of the remaining chicks and dads on these final days soothes my soul. Below is a stunning photo sent by Ann Merritt, one of our wonderful monitors, of a juvenile who successfully caught a fish! Many will not be successful until they begin their first journey south. Gosh, what will we do without our winged friends? Every year it’s so hard to adjust to life without them.