Updates

A few updates and comments. I am busier than ever in the field. We are STILL finding new nests and nest attempts. I have to tease out whether these are frustration nests or new nests. Thank goodness the one I checked yesterday had a banded bird, making it easier to track the history and the movement and conclude it’s a frustration nest. But I also found a new nest with chicks in it! And a banded male that is making it very hard to read his band! He is either surrounded by a sea of chicks fighting for the fish, or he is gone fishing!

i am also doing a lot of searching for fledged chicks to be sure they fledged successfully! Flying away and never being seen again, is not a successful fledge! Got a distraught email from a volunteer about not being able to locate the chick from a nest where we did a rescue.....the little guy whose legs were found dangling from a hole in the nest. We have become very attached to him. I searched all over and could not see or hear anything, just as the volunteer did. My heart sank. But as a last resort, I widened my search, and tried driving around some outlying areas and found a gate that said no trespassing, no admittance.....and I parked right there because I saw something white in the trees beyond.....put up the scope, and bingo....there he was, our missing juvenile, beautiful, regal. Woo hoo. He was actually not that far from his nest, but just in a spot that was not visible from our usual monitoring area.

Yesterday I came upon a nest with the single chick missing. Probably fledged. I searched to no avail. I found the male perched nearby, and the female was flying around carrying a fish. I knew she was either trying to locate the chick, or she knew where the chick was and was trying to get him back to the nest to feed him. Sometimes due to lots of private property, I can’t search as freely as I would like. I failed to find him, but will return today.

Also the second chick at the Arboretum Cam nest has fledged.

We are also in talks with some private property owners to make an unused nestpole more attractive to ospreys.

Doing what we can to help the ospreys!