Arb cam

the Osprey Cam at the Arb has been fixed!
http://arb.umn.edu/content/live-osprey-cam

Drama...

Well, I had a drama filled day in ospreyland. First I need to say that as many know, the Arboretum cam is broken....the WiFi connection is the problem and apparently the repair was beyond their budget at this time. I did go out and check on them yesterday and both chicks were up and at em, bopping around, and both parents were there, so all is well there.
Today I got an email about a serious problem on a nest....photo below. You can see a hole in the bottom of a nest and some little legs hanging down. So I sprang into action....went home, got a bunch of sticks and wood chips and the property manager arranged for a lift machine to get me up there. One of my trusty monitors, who monitors this nest, Barb, met me and we went up, took out the chicks, filled the hole with sticks, then filled in around the sticks with woodchips, and then put grasses on top. I called the Raptor Center, we sent photos of the abrasions one of the chicks had on his leg. We discussed it and decided to put some neosporin on his leg and place him back in the nest. Mom and Dad flew over during the rescue, and mom was back on the nest before we drove away. Hopefully both little guys will be allright. A special thanks to Brett for noticing those little legs dangling, and to Paul for contacting me, and to Barb for helping me. I am so glad I could help. We will watch over this nest a little more than usual in the next few weeks.

Arb cam....

As many of you know, the Arboretum Osprey Cam is down. I am getting a lot of messages asking about it, so I have to remind people that I do not run the cam....I just watch it and comment on the behaviors observed there. I know that initially it seemed that there were problems for people watching on a phone, but my iPad still received the livestream perfectly. There were conversations with some of the people at the Arb about that, since it was odd....and then it all went down and I have heard nothing about what is wrong or when or if they anticipate the cam working again.

Of course we dont want them to disturb newly hatched chicks if there is something physically wrong with the camera itself. I will try to monitor the nest in person to see how they are doing when I have time, and I will share that info. I know how frustrating this is for those of you who are addicted!

Right now we have SO many nests hatching, and also this is the time when we start to see some nesting failures and I am trying to figure that out, count heads on successful nests, and it’s got me running all over. Sometimes figuring out what went wrong, or what’s going wrong on a failing nest, can be very time consuming and upsetting. Many times it remains a mystery.

If I hear anything about the Arb cam or that nest, I will surely share it. Thanks for your patience. Thanks for caring.

Two!

And number two has hatched at the Arboretum! Don’t worry...mom wasn’t gone for long!

Yes!

We have a hatch at the Arboretum nest.....mom is not letting us see much but it is a wiggling live little tiny chick. Eggshell off to the side...

 The little blob to the left of the egg, in photo below,  is the newly hatched chick! Notice the small cup, or indentation in the nest where the egg and chick are, making it easier for the adults to sit on them without harming them. The chick cant can’t even hold its head up for more than a few seconds.

Sad start....

 Have been watching the Arboretum cam this morning, day 39 of incubation, and I am at a loss for what I have seen. Clearly one egg is open.....but the female moved it and pulled something out of the egg and ate it. I cannot see a chick in the nest. I will keep watching.....they are so tiny and so camouflaged in the sticks. The female left and the male took over incubation. The egg was not damaged yesterday that we could could see. It certainly could have been cracked in a way that was not observable on a cam like this that is not super hi def. At any rate, we are now watching for hatching on the other two eggs. Nature is not a disney movie. What she ate did not not appear to be a fully developed chick. There are reports of Ospreys eating a dead chick, or feeding it to other chicks. If the egg was damaged and the chick died, it is a wise use of protein. She also walked around the nest and picked up and ate a few few small bits of something. At any rate, its it’s not what we expected to see this morning. But we still hope for two healthy chicks to come.

Better days....

Well as you all know, this place I live in has been thru some very trying times in the last week. It is a pretty dark time and sometimes monitoring Osprey nests seems pointless when an innocent life is lost in such a horrific manner. But I still drag myself out to check nests. In the last week there has been a lot of hatching, which is a lovely thing to observe.....the males bringing those fish to the female for those first feedings. I am happy to report that I have seen FAR less headshaking and the black flies seem to be subsiding. Thankful that these new chicks will not be tormented.
Today I saw the first chicks for this year....finally big enough to stand up, at about ten days of age. I waited for 90 minutes for the male to bring a fish and when he did, it was a whopper! The female took it and at first there was just one chick standing but then up popped number two! The littlest one was onay able to stand up for short periods, but I could see his little beak reaching out for fish bits. The older chick was able to remain standing thru the entire feeding, until both seemed to collapse into a food coma and Momma just kept eating. Pop stood on the nest the entire time watching and helping to shade the wee ones. He snoozed a bit as well. Happy family. Still such a lift to see those little guys...almost made me forget what our community is going thru. Life does go on....sometimes it’s something this small that can keep me going, hoping for happier, more peaceful days to come. Justice for George. 

I also must send out a huge thanks to Ruth Rechtzigel for her generous donation to help keep this research going. I am so deeply touched by this support. A million thanks!