Hatching!!!!!

 The day has come.....that exciting, uplifting day we wait for...and it never gets old. The first chicks have hatched! And I know I say this every year, but it’s like I have never seen it before as watch those first feedings. Still a thrill!

I was lucky to meet up with some great volunteer monitors this morning at a nest where I had predicted hatching might occur. We watched the early, subtle behaviors....she is sitting a little higher, she is getting up to look down more often....the male stops by to peek, and they both stare into the nest cup. She asks quietly for some food and off he goes....he returns quickly with a stick. Thats not what she was asking for tho....we need some fish here. This trip he was gone a while....and we were starting to get impatient. But I said, I can feel that he is on his way back with some food.....and sure enough, shortly after that he appeared with a big goldfish, and she quickly ate some of the boney parts of the head and then began leaning into the nestcup with tiny bits of fish for the newly hatched chick. YES! Even tho we know we will not be able to see the little guys for about two weeks, we have seen the evidence that at least one of them is there!

I moved on to checking several other nests that might be hatching today.....two were just sitting very low, very calm....but when I came to one of the last of the early birds in this area, I knew instantly! The male was on the edge of the nest watching as the female was feeding a chick! Woo hoo! It is still a rush and tonight we celebrate as the class of 2021 is popping out of their shells!

I am also still investigating new nests.....and a huge thank you to those folks who do report new nests to me!!!! And we are still waiting for a few nests to lay eggs. They are getting to the end of that window when they can successfully produce chicks...and their hormone levels are dropping. We still may see new nests being built all summer, and we refer to these birds as “ housekeepers” since they will not lay eggs, but may stake out a territory and play house all summer in preparation for next year.

So, it was a good day....welcoming new ospreys into the world is always a joy!