Single Dads

 It’s been over a week since we rescued that adult male that was on the ground, unable to fly. He has a puncture wound that had necrotic tissue around it, so it was an older wound. At the time of the rescue we pondered who he was and what was going on at that nest that he was near. We had seen no female there. Was he the dad? With some great help from Lisa Jude and a return visit on my part we have determined that the female is gone and there is a single Dad taking care of two chicks. The injured male must have been an intruder. We actually have two nests with single dads now. As some of my long time readers may remember I discovered a nest many years ago where there was no female tending to chicks. I watched for hours and my mind spun a million miles an hour about what to do. I didnt think a single male could successfully care for the three very young chicks on that nest. As always I spent a great deal of time just watching.....my stomach flipping. That male was leaving chicks alone for long periods at first....and I watched him bring a fish, drop it in the nest and start to leave. Then he perched on the outer part of the cell tower that held his nest, and looked back at the small chicks, unable to rip and tear fish on their own. He looked around, as if he was wondering “where is she?” It’s not in his job description to feed the chicks. But he went back into the nest and began feeding them. To make a long story short, he slowly figured out that he was a single parent and had to fulfill the role of both mother and father. He balanced it perfectly, leaving when necessary to get food, but also shading and feeding the chicks, watching over them, and chasing away intruders. He successfully fledged all three chicks on his own and he taught me some very important things about male ospreys. So after watching the Dad at this new nest without a female, we have determined that those chicks will probably be fine. The male is often perched near the nest, and he delivers fish to the chicks who are able to self feed. Sometimes he is gone, as he has to be to provide for them and yet they are healthy, often seen with full crops, and they are displaying pre fledge behaviors .....hopping and flapping, getting some loft. It won’t be too long before they are flying. Whew. Of course they are vulnerable to predation when he is gone, but with a little luck, this will have a happy ending.

We have another situation where both the female and a chick disappeared, leaving two chicks and a single dad. He too is managing to care for those two chicks alone.

I recently read about a nest in another state where they learned that a female was missing and they believed that a male could not care for the chicks alone so they took them and renested them elsewhere. Based upon my observations, a male can indeed care for chicks alone. I do think there is a period of time when that male has to come to grips with what the situation is, and what he needs to do. But I think male ospreys are not given enough credit for the strength of their parental instincts.

Here is a photo from Lisa Jude of the male bringing in a fish for the two chicks on the nest. It takes a village to watch over all these ospreys and I can’t do it alone....special thanks to Lisa for her devotion to watching over this nest, and to Alice Stoddard for her visits to that and another nest where the behaviors are weird and baffling. But that’s another story......

Fingers crossed for our single dads and their offspring this year....