Happy Holidays….

 Here we are, deep in the holiday season so I wanted to wish you all Happy Holidays, whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Solstice….

It all marks a time of renewal of kindness, generosity and hope. It’s been a divisive year with many unfortunate events and much unkindness in the world….including people who don’t care about harming ospreys or other wildlife. We have also experienced the joy of people stepping up to be helpful, caring, inclusive. I am so grateful to those people, including all the volunteers on this project, as well as the people in the community who share information and who offered their time and assistance in difficult situations. My wish for the new year is that more people will come together to share our love for the ospreys, all wildlife and each other. I honor all people around the world who contribute to this hope for a better world. May judgements and grudges be replaced with the light that brings us all closer. 

With immense gratitude and my best wishes for peace….

October 4……sigh.

 I believe our osprey season in the Twin Cities area has come to an end. Our last chick seems to have departed yesterday and the area was so quiet today. So now I officially have empty nest syndrome…..sigh. I enjoyed my final visits with her.

And now, all that data……all that paperwork!

Wishing all our osprey friends safe passage to their wintering grounds….oh how we will miss you.

October 3……still here!

 October 3, leaves are falling and the late fledging chick is still here! I watched her for over 90 minutes today, hoping dad would show up but he didnt. I am sure he is still around tho…..we are in for a big change in weather on wednesdayWednesday, with winds shifting to be from the N so that may escort our lingering friends on their way south. Sure was fun to hang out with her today!

September 29!

 STILL HERE! This chicks Dad was seen also but he didn‘t land where I could get a good photo. Its a good day when you can still find an osprey at this time of year!

Still here!

 I ran out today to check the nest that had the latest hatch/ fledge……I was so happy to find at least one chick still here….and got to see Dad deliver a fish to this young one. Another nearby nest had a chick two days ago, but the nest was sadly empty today. We are having strong winds from the north today so this may have been the deciding factor for some of our remaining ospreys. Still, I savored watching that beautiful juvenile osprey sitting in a tree with yellow leaves fluttering in the wind. Suddenly the youngster broke into a desperate whine and flew to the nest and was able to see the Dad as he dropped the fish and then went to the tree where the chick had been perched. Gosh, at this time of year they seem so precious!

Devoted Dad…

 I stopped yesterday at a nest that had two of the latest fledges in the metro….a nestmonitor reported no adults, just chicks. As I stated in the previous post, those Dads dont abandon their young, so I went looking for him. I found one chick perched with a fish….eating quietly…..no other ospreys seen. I had an appointment to keep and then circled back to this nest. Chick was still in the same place with half a fish in its talons as it also food begged for more ( that hyperphagia thing!). When a chick is food begging, in fact whining desperately for food, you know that Dad is around! Sure enough I finally spotted him in a tree, watching over this apoplectic chick who needed ten fish ASAP! Ha ha. Those Dads are so amazing, tho he may not be seen all the time near the nest, as this particularly attentive male was earlier in the season….he is still there caring for this remaining chick.

Mid September…..

 I visited about 18 nests over the weekend and found young ospreys still on 7 nests. So as the leaves are beginning to change, our time with the Ospreys is coming to an end. We still have several nests that fledged very late and we will continue to monitor those nests as long as we see any ospreys. We are getting reports of “abandoned” chicks that are still food begging on their nests. Many of them are experiencing ”hyperphagia” or an extreme drive to eat, as these extra calories will provide them with the energy to migrate! We must keep in mind that the adult males have invested five months in their breeding efforts and they dont abandon their young at this time of year! These males are amazing in their committed efforts to care for their offspring….tho they do become a bit scarce at this time. They give their chicks some space, while still delivering a fish occasionally to keep them going. They do want their chicks to undertake their first big journey with a full belly, a good layer of fat to sustain them! The adult females are on their way by now, and the chicks will be the next to go. We often see a single adult male circling high above a nest with a fish as if to see if there are any hungry juveniles still around. We must remember that ospreys are motivated by two very strong instincts, the first is to survive and the second is to breed successfully.

Its a wistful time of year for those of us who have worked so hard to accurately monitor all known nests in the metro area….we have put in so much time, driven so many miles, and while some of us are ready for a little vacation, we also will dearly miss our winged friends who have come to mean so much to us. A million thanks to all the dedicated monitors who watched over so many nests, worked on rescues, and documented outcomes so carefully until no ospreys could be found. Osprey season is not totally over, but the end is in sight. Now we linger with those few remaining ospreys, relishing the sights and sounds which will sustain us over the winter. There have been some very sad losses this year, and we will also remember those birds as we contemplate how we can do better at rescuing them in the future.

As always, I will begin the overwhelming task of gathering all the data for analysis over the winter.

I will keep you posted as we search for those final lingering ospreys!

More sad news…

 More sad news….I just recieved word from a vet at The Raptor Center that the osprey chick that was rescued Monday evening had to be euthanized. This one suffered the same catastrophic injuries that the other two chicks who were discovered hanging from a cell tower or ballfield light…severely dislocated hip from the long struggle to free itself. At least it didnt have to die slowly while hanging there. We are hoping that in the future we may be able to rescue these birds sooner….tho we have too many nests to check them all daily. We hope the monitors we do have might check nests on cell towers more frequently at fledging time. Its such a critical time for these young birds and it tends to be a time when some monitors start to think of osprey season as winding down…when its actually the time that these young birds are most likely to get into trouble and need our help. Fledging time is a fragile time. The mortality rate is high in the first year for ospreys, with some estimating that less than 40% will survive. Ospreys are a species that can live a fairly long time, 20-25 years. They will have many breeding successes and many failures in those years, but that knowledge doesnt make these losses any easier to take.

We did our best, and we will continue to do what we can, when we can, and I am deeply grateful to all of the people who were instrumental in this rescue.

Another crisis…

 Another trying situation unfolded yesterday. One of my volunteer monitors, Alice Stoddard noticed an osprey in trouble, caught on something on a cell tower way out in Wright County. Alice had called the cell company and gotten no return call. I contacted our friends at Meridian Blue again…..gave them all the info regarding the cell co, tower number etc. Sadly, Alicia, the owner of Meridian Blue was initially denied permission to climb that tower by the cell company. I was also talking to Amy Simso Dean at the Raptor Center and she decided to put some additional pressure on the cell company and eventually they agreed to allow Meridian Blue to climb the tower to rescue the bird. It took hours, lots of phone calls, text messages and finally at about 7:30 p.m. Meridian Blue had a crew on site, and The Raptor Center had a transport volunteer there, Bill Dom, along with the Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch nest monitor mentioned above. Amy and I were texting each other thru the process, and shortly before 9 p.m. they had the bird down and all climbers were safely back on the ground. It was too late to get the bird to TRC but that final leg of thw journey will occur this morning and we are waiting to hear what the birds status is.

Once again I send out a HUGE thankyou to all involved, especially Meridian Blue for doing what noone else could do. I am so deeply grateful to everyone at Meridian Blue, to Alice and Bill, and Amy.

We are hoping for the best for this young bird….I will update later.

August 17

 OK!OK!OK….ONE MORE TRY!

We went out and tried one more time to find the chick. We failed. Today even the male was hard to find. The female was sitting in one of her favorite perches alone. we checked some other unlikely spots where we were told the parents were circling the day little Arb jumped out….prowling thru the brush. Sadly we found nothing, heard nothing. We watched momma for quite some time but she gave us no clues.

Another round of thanks to Carrie, Debbie and Ken. We talked about how difficult it is to let go, to accept that that little bugger that I held in my arms so recently has probably perished. He deserved better. This outcome is so tragic, especially knowing how close to a successful fledge he probably was. He just needed a little more safe time on his nest. Sigh. So today, we grieve. Tomorrow I go look for that other chick that had a close call and whose survival needs to be confirmed.

I will not forget this little osprey anytime soon. Nor will I forget his panicked departure from the nest. We wanted to help him so badly.

August 16

 I searched the Arb from 9 to almost 5:30 today for the missing chick. I started by whacking my way thru the squash field, thinking the chick could be hiding in there….and he still could be, but I couldnt see or hear him. Then a new volunteer showed up and she has decided to become our newest nest monitor next year! It was lovely to meet Carrie Bowar and share some info about ospreys as we looked around. During her time we located the adults and spent time watching them in hopes that they might get a fish and fly around, which might stimulate a food begging response from a chick. She was lucky to get to see the female bathing! Fun to watch her splash and duck and float in the water. But we did not hear any vocalizations that sounded like the chick. Then two of my regular nest monitors showed up, Debbie Jordan (yes, the debbie who worked so hard on the cell tower situation. She is a glutton for punishment so showed up today too!) and Ken Fischer , who spent all afternoon beating bushes, searching the prairie, scanning the lake, looking, and listening. Sadly, we found no chick, heard no food begging, found no evidence of the chick at all. We watched the male flying loops over the nesting area with a stick, clearly looking for the chick. Later in the day we found both of them in a dead tree east of the nest. They did not seem distressed, tho at times seemed to be looking for the chick. They did not ever land back on the nest. By the end of the day, the Arb was being locked up, noone inquired about our results, no Arb employees helped us today. It was very hard for us to give up and go home. We dragged our feet, tried to figure out where else this chick could possibly be, where else we could possibly look, talked about tomorrow…..all three of these volunteers wanted to try again, but I am not sure it will be fruitful. I have a chick I need to check on over on the opposite side of the metro. Its so discouraging and depressing. But the ray of light that I am grateful for is these wonderful, osprey loving volunteers on my project who showed up and trudged around on this muggy day because they wanted so much to find this young osprey who had won our hearts. We were unable to do that, and we do feel defeated….but at least we were able to share our disappointment. A million thanks to Carrie, Debbie and Ken.

August 15

 I am aware that the Arb chick jumped out of the nest again, just as he did yesterday when human activity was occurring directly under the nest. There was an emergency repair needed on Monday when a water line broke. This stage of development is a fragile time and its easy to cause a chick to “pre fledge” or jump too soon, before he has fully developed the necessary strength and skills to fly and to land safely. He has not been flapping, hovering or displaying the usual behaviors which preceed a successful fledge. He is still within the window of time when fledging is normally expected.

He and the adults were giving alarm calls before he took off.

When I saw what happened, I once again called the Arb. I also went out there and I spent three hours searching for the chick. Jim joined me and helped search all over the area but we could not find him or hear him. I watched the adults carefully for clues, but when they flew over, I did not hear the chick food begging. Jim had to go, so at 4:30 we ceased searching. The chick is very vulnerable on the ground overnight, and is not being fed. ( Adult ospreys generally wont feed a chick on the ground because it leaves them vulnerable to predation).

I will return in the morning and try again.

Baling twine…..disaster

 We finally got the chick down from a cell tower where it was in trouble

. It’s been over 24 hours of hanging there thrashing, and our hearts breaking more and more each moment it struggled. For some reason all the calls to the cell company were unfruitful yesterday. A million thanks to Debbie Jordan , a Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch volunteer extraordinaire, for all her work and for never giving up. Today she finally got in touch with someone at the cell company in charge of environmental stuff who said no one told her about this situation yesterday. Well, long story short we were finally connected to Meridian Blue Construction who sent a crew to rescue the chick. The chick was still alive but sadly, another chick was dead in the nest. Killed by baling twine. A deep thanks goes out to every one at Meridian Blue….Alicia and Bob, the climbers Jake and Will for doing heroic work rescuing this poor bird. I cannot thank them enough. Also thanks to Karen, a transport volunteer from The Raptor Center, for taking the bird to TRC for medical help. We will keep you posted about it’s condition when we hear something.

What must we do to get people to dispose of that baling twine safely so these things don’t happen???? This stuff is lethal to many kinds of wildlife. Ospreys are attracted to it because of its bright color, and bring it to the nest and it never deteriorates, it shreds into fine, cutting material. People MUST pick it up and dispose of it appropriately. I post gruesome photos to make people aware of just how awful this stuff is. I know I am preaching to the choir here.

Anyway just as I finish up that situation I hear the Little Arb chick jumped out again….apparently frightened by some activity below. So I called our hero at the Arb, Jim Elskamp, and he found our little friend and got him back in the nest. A special thanks again to Jim! Our little osprey should be fledging now but I have not seen much flapping of his wings…..so he needs to do some work to build his strength. He is the correct age for fledging and his feathers should be hard penned by now. Time for some prefledge workouts buddy!

So a million thanks to everyone at Meridian Blue, and to Jim at the Arb….and especially to Debbie Jordan for her perseverance in kicking butts until we got the help we needed.

Rescued the Arb chick again

 We had to rescue the Arboretum cam chick twice this week….the first time last Wednesday after it blew out of the nest in a storm, and the second time at 6:30 am this morning when it was self feeding and a little gust of wind flipped him over….he hung on the side of the nest for a while and then fell. I saw it and called the Groundskeeper Jim Elskamp at 7 a.m.  and we met out there and found the chick and returned him to the nest again. Some photos below of both rescues…we took him to the Raptor Center on Wednesday for observation, but today we just consulted with the vet there, and decided to put him back on the nest. We will all be watching for any signs of trouble…..hoping he stays put for a while now.

Single Dad

 For those of you who are wondering about the new single Dad that I wrote about recently….me and two monitors are keeping a close eye on them. I visited that nest twice today….first thing in the morning I arrived and found the chick sitting up on the nest with a pretty full crop. Dad was perched nearby, watching over the little guy. Dad took off and grabbed some fresh grasses and brought them to the nest. Then he walked around the nest, arranging things before he picked up a half eaten fish that was on the nest and began feeding the little guy. What was so heart warming to me was that the chick had a fairly full crop, and Dads was empty.

Gosh its so easy to think these situations are hopeless, but this male is coming around. I think the little guy is raising this male to be a good dad! We have been thru some really scorching hot weather, and our little friend is surviving. Its been almost a month since we discovered the Mom missing. We worry about him being alone so much….but today after I checked a bunch of other nests, I came back and found Dad again, on the nest edge, just hanging out with the chick about five hours later, and the little one had a full crop again! He looks like he may have 10 days to two weeks till fledge…..so keep your fingers crossed! But today I saw the male there more than I have on other visits, and the chick is doing well. Its looking like this chick might make it! He was grabbing the fish from Dad this morning with some attitude!

I have fallen in love with him.

Challenging summer….

 Well folks its been a hell of a summer for me personally, with a lot of difficult circumstances presenting themselves that have kept me from the osprey fieldwork and from writing posts or answering all emails. Stumbling along the best I can. Sometimes life just presents us with obstacles and challenges and we just cant do what we want every day. My apologies. I am squeezing in nest visits when possible. So many success stories with healthy chicks preparing to fledge….and some sad failures. Many of the long time readers will remember my stories about the single Dad who raised three chicks on his own after his mate disappeared when the chicks were about 3-4 weeks old. All fledged successfully! That male holds a special place in my heart tho he is no longer with us. Well this year we have a similar story….a nest where the female just disappeared leaving a male to care for one chick on his own. Sadly we are coming to realize that he does not have the strong parental instinct's that our other single Dad did. That other male had previous parental experience which probably served him well, and this one may be a first time father. This chick was also younger when the female disappeared, and this male is rarely on the nest. Its been about a week and a half and the chick is surviving, but is alone much of the time, and the male is gone for 3 hours at a time routinely. There are three of us taking turns monitoring the nest the best we can…..but with a stretch of extreme heat predicted in the coming week, I wonder if the little guy will get enough fish to stay hydrated. Fingers crossed! He is starting to feather out nicely so will have a little more thermal protection. I do remember at the beginning of that other situation, I thought the chicks were doomed, but sometimes nature has a way of surprising us!

Yesterday I was watching a nest where the male delivered a fish and the female began feeding the chicks……and males often stay to watch a feeding, but this one lined up with the chicks to be fed by Mom!!!!! What the heck? He kept snatching those fish bites before the little guys could! I have never seen an adult male do that! Mom finally turned away to try to feed the chicks from her other side. Funny, and well, just weird. I scratched my head…..I love it when I see a new behavior, and it challenges me to make sense of it. Dont ask me to explain….cause I can‘t!

I think we may see the first flights of some of our older chicks in the next week…..so fasten your seat belts!

Arboretum osprey chick has hatched!

 The remaining egg on the Arboretum cam osprey nest has hatched this morning….and gotten it’s first feeding! 

Accident?

 I am getting a lot of inquiries about the egg on the Arboretum cam nest that is on the outer edge…here is what I shared with the Arboretum folks about all this. People have jumped to an a conclusion that the female chose to reject that egg and I dont think thats actually what happened.

When I watched that video I thought it was actually an accident. She started to roll the egg, which is normal behavior but the nest has been so damaged by storms that the egg hit a slope and rolled to the edge of the nest. They can’t pick up an egg and return it….and it’s pretty hard to roll it back uphill when all you have is a beak. She settled on the remaining egg and kept looking at the other egg….like it concerned her, but she didn’t know what to do about it. It was also very windy when she was trying to roll the egg. I don’t think she actually meant to reject an egg….it was stormy and she was trying to roll an egg and it just didnt go well, partly because of the state of the nest. Usually they are rolling an egg in a soft grassy cup in the nest, that sort of contains it, and it doesn’t roll away like that.

The nest base has decomposed so it’s really just dirt….and the sticks they have added are not getting anchored in anything so they blow off after every storm. And the dirt base is not flat, so it looks like the nest edge drops off slightly….which caused the egg to roll to the edge.

Its sad, but ya know….shit happens. Storms, damaged nests, etc…But life goes in and many nests are hatching and today I actually saw my first chick! They are usually too small to see for at least 1-2 weeks, and I saw one tiny head during a feeding….just briefly before it fell over, as they do!

Hatched!

 Our first chicks have hatched! Right on schedule, day 39! It just never gets old, and is still a thrill to see after 29 years of watching the ospreys. At first Momma was just sitting but she kept hunching up to peek beneath her breast. Then Dad arrived with wet grasses to cool the little ones. Both adults stood side by side staring into the nestcup. Mom walked around the edge of the nest and picked up a half eaten fish, leftovers from a previous feeding, and began offering little bits of fish into the nest. Chicks are too tiny to be seen yet, but they are in there!!!!

Storm loss

 Sadly I did find one catastrophic loss today….

one nest that was removed last fall, was rebuilt this spring and eggs were laid in it…..is completely gone after the storm. I waited until i saw both adults. Good to know they are ok.

Photo from several weeks ago, and today…..sigh. They worked so hard to rebuild the nest….

Most other nests we are finding to be ok…..some damaged a bit, but incubation continues. Still making the rounds tho….a lot of nests to visit.

 

The storm….

 hey guys just want to make a point here…..if you post a comment on this page and you dont get a reply, do not assume that I am blowing you off. As many of you know, I am stretched very thin, trying to do so much, and I often miss stuff on Facebook. That is why I frequently post my email address…..please use it if you are seeking an answer, want to share info, or want to communicate with me for any reason. I always answer people, eventually, but on occasion I miss what is posted here….you can always contact me at osprey.mn@gmail.com.

I prefer to have conversations about specific nests or monitoring via email, so just want you all to know that I am available….but facebook is just not the best way to connect with me. My apologies to anyone whose comments here were overlooked.

I just have so many hours in a day, and facebook has become a lower priority out of necessity. Emails are MUCH less likely to be missed!

I am hearing from many of our intrepid nest monitors that most nests survived the storm……some nests were damaged, but we are locating both adults on most nests….of course it will take time to recheck all nests. These birds never fail to amaze me by how tough they are, but weathering storms is just part of being an osprey. I would always prefer to lose eggs than chicks. At this stage they still could reclutch, tho its getting late. And we may be in for another round of storms tonight….hopefully less severe.

Many thanks to all the monitors who were out there today checking things out!!!!! I treasure all of you who care so deeply about ”your” ospreys!

As one of the monitors drove me to a medical test today, we talked about a nest a few years ago that had three fairly large chicks, and a huge storm pelted them with hail that was so deep, the snowplows had to remove it from the roads….piled high. That poor female withstood that beating, trying to protect three chicks but they were too big to cover fully. Two of them died, but she managed to save one chick, and she survived uninjured!

I also remember many years ago a big tornado went thru the Hugo area, leveling homes, filling a lake with debris. There was an osprey nest about one football field away from totally flattened houses. When I checked them the day after the storm, the eggs were hatching and the adult's were feeding the tiny chicks! It was truely awesome! These birds deserve so much respect for what they endure to breed successfully!!!! So think good thoughts for them all tonight!!!!

Haven’t forgotten about you!

 As this population of ospreys continues to grow, I am finding less and less time to spend in front of a computer….writing posts and answering emails. I have also had some health issues and took a much needed break to go to California for a few days to visit my cousin and to see Paul McCartney on his first tour in three years. He was amazing and did provide a big lift to everyones spirits. I busted my butt to get to most nests before I left…and many ospreys are incubating. Sadly we still have some sites where a nest was removed and no ospreys have been seen, no rebuilding has occurred. We are missing a lot of banded birds….even younger ones. Today I checked a nest that was built last year and still there is only a lonely female there. No male has shown up. Not sure why she hasnt attracted a new mate. We are looking for new nests that might pop up. It will be very interesting to see how our numbers are at the end of the year.

At any rate, I havent forgotten about the readers! Only so many hours in a day tho….cant believe its mid May already!

New life….

 Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Ramadan…..

Our first ospreys have laid eggs….while many nests are still empty. I have now documented 14 nests that were removed, and I have not been around to even half of the nests so far. There will be more. Some ospreys are rebuilding, but it looks like some have given up. Many banded birds have not returned yet, and I wonder if avian flu has already taken a toll. We may never know. Many long term monitors are alarmed, saddened, frustrated.

For some of our older expperienced Ospreys who have laid eggs right on schedule, we are reminded that life goes on….

and more personally I see that with all the changes this year, nests gone, avian flu spreading….having solid long term data to help us document the changes may be more important than ever.

Brrrrrrrr

 Boy this cold windy weather seems to be slowing down migrating ospreys. Some of us were out there yesterday in the 40 mph winds and snow, checking nests and it was miserable. But we have a very short window between when the ospreys return and when they begin laying eggs and incubating. I am trying my hardest to get bands read before incubation when we might have to wait for many many hours for an osprey to stand up and reveal its legs. I deeply appreciate the volunteers who are helping me with this huge task. Some ospreys have been slow to return, probably due to the strong north winds. We still have some empty nests and are missing some of our older, experienced banded birds. I dont know if we should start grieving their loss, or just be patient. I was at one nest yesterday that in the past had a banded male who was often among the early returns. The nest has been empty, empty, empty. The nest was also among the 13 so far that were removed. Finally yesterday there were some new sticks up there! And I located the ospreys and was able to read the band on the male! Yeah the same, dependable guy. Quite late, but beginning the work of rebuilding his nest! I know its not fun for volunteers to be out there when its 35 degrees and the wind is blowing 40-50 mph….but this is part of the committment. I am trying to get around to all the nests, but reading bands takes time…..so I want to express my gratitude to those volunteers who are excited to see their winged friends and who are out there helping with this huge task in spite of imperfect conditions. You know who you are! I treasure you! These people are always rewarded by getting to observe interesting behaviors…..I love the early days. So we do still need more volunteers to help us out, if you have a scope, some birding experience and a willingness to commit 15-30 min a week to each assigned nest. We have a list of behaviors we are trying to document on each nest to guide the monitors. Our data has been consistantly collected for 29 years and the results are always posted online so the public can see what we are doing and learn about how the osprey population is doing in the metro area. This will be a particularly important year as we face the avian flu, and we dont know how this will impact osprey production. If you want to help….email me at osprey.mn@gmail.com

To my devoted monitors…..stay warm! It will get better!

More returns!

 The southerly winds the past few days have brought in many more ospreys. The official springtime game of musical nests is in full swing…..banded ospreys showing up on the wrong nests, birds showing up and then disappearing (not the territorial pair) etc. We have seen some of our favorite banded ospreys but are still waiting for some others. It can be a confusing time of year, especially after so many nests were removed….11 that I know of at this time…and those birds are moving to other established nests. Wow. Some of these birds will be able to rebuild in their old site. We have to keep checking, rechecking and reading bands when we can….sometimes over and over!

I was very happy today to see the pair who we put the new nestpole up for last fall. Their nest was on ballfield lights that were permanently removed. That male was working his tail off today bringing sticks, as the female just sat there and food begged! Its not the first time this guy has had to rebuild his nest, and he is a hard worker! Fun to watch him!

And another big thanks to Rick Endo and Ruth Rechtzigel for their donations to the project! I am so deeply grateful for their generous support!

A favorite!

How could I have forgotten to tell ya the good news? Every year I have shared my story about the male who fractured his keel in the middle of the season, spent a month in rehab leaving his mate to care for three chicks alone and then when I released him, she attacked him and would not let him near the nest tho he co tinually tried to bring food for his offspring. They reconnected the following year as if nothing happened. He quickly became one of my favorite males with his devotion to his chicks and his steadfastness. Well on Tuesday he was waiting on his nest to greet me!!! I was so happy to see him! He is a rockstar! And he is always an early return!

Patience….

 Well folks…..I drove a big loop today in the cold, snowy, windy weather. I visited 30 nests….and only saw 8 ospreys on those nests. These strong north winds are slowing down the migration a bit apparently. These early birds made it when the those southerly winds were in their favor. The saddest thing this year is the massive removal of nests which has occurred. We are now up to nine known nests that are no longer on their cell tower or ballfield light. And we are just starting to visit all nests….I suspect we will discover more missing nests. In my 29 years of studying this population if birds I have never seen so many nests removed. Perhaps this is related to the 5G upgrades in cell service. Most towers still look nestable. Some of the removals from lights were to replace lights that now look unnestable. sigh.

Ospreys can rebuild in a heartbeat if the structure is still the same, so our fingers are crossed for many of these birds.

I also want to send out a ginormous thank you to John Howe and The Raptor Resource Project for their generous donation. It means the world to me to know that what I am doing is valued and supported. I am so deeply grateful for their ongoing support, especially this year! A million thanks!

First bands read!

 More ospreys showing up every day…..today I read my first couple of bands! So nice to confirm the return of some of our older, experienced and deeply valued ospreys! And here is a stunningly beautiful shot of one of our lovely ladies from Ann Merrit!

They’re back!!!!!!

 Osprey season has officially begun as of April 2, 2022! I have seen two ospreys on their nests and heard about another from one of the volunteers and a pair reported by a member of the public! So we are off! I hope many of the monitors that I havent heard from will return….do let me know….and we always need more help ( people with birding experience, a spotting scope, some knowledge of breeding behavior, and an ability to commit at least 15-30 minutes of time per nest, per week. We have written guidelines about what behaviors we are trying to document on each nest as part of a long term research study. Contact me at osprey.mn@gmail.com)

And a HUGE thanks to Debbie Jordan for her generous donation to the project! With the current economy its hard for me to drive all the miles I have in the past, so I deeply appreciate the support!

2021 data results

 I see that I never posted the data results here from 2021 so here they are….

2021 OSPREY RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION SUMMARY

                                                        By Vanessa Greene

       

           The first Ospreys of the 2021 season were back on their nests on March 29! It was a good year for the Ospreys in this 38th year of monitoring the osprey population in the eight county Twin Cities metro area, with increased numbers and a higher success rate than last year. The early Ospreys laid the first eggs by April 19!

           There were 170 nests which were occupied* by a pair of adult ospreys. (159 in 2020). There may be more nests we do not know about and we hope the public will continue to report new nests to us. Eggs were laid in 166 nests (144 in 2020) which is quite a high percentage of occupied nests. There were two additional nests that were discovered late in the season with no birds present which could not be included in the above counts without more information. There were 140 nests had at least one chick that was confirmed to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age (116 in 2020). We documented 30 nests which failed (43 in 2020). We separate failed nests into two distinct subcategories; there were only 4 nests where a pair was present but no eggs were laid (15 last year) and 26 nests where eggs were laid but they failed to successfully fledge a single chick or the cause of failure was unknown (28 last year). (Not laying eggs is considered to be a kind of nest failure by other scientists.) Out of those 26 nests where eggs were laid, there were 10 nests where hatching did occur but all chicks died fairly early, before we could accurately count them. The remaining 16 nests failed prior to hatching. The 2021 failure rate dropped to 18%. This represents a very significant decrease! (In 2020 the failure rate was 27%, in 2019 it was 39%, in 2018 it was 29%, in 2017 it was 28%, and in 2016 it was 25%.)

There were 295 chicks that were known to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age! (237 in 2020). Most successful nests had two chicks this year, with 65 nests with two chicks, 45 nests with three chicks, and 30 nests that produced a single chick. The mortality rate this year was quite a bit higher than last year with 26 chicks which were known to have died or disappeared before fledging, (8 last year) plus two chicks that disappeared right at fledging time, flying off never to be seen again. Sadly, three of these chicks became tangled in baling twine and suffered tragic, unnecessary deaths. There were three known adult mortalities. One was a male that was found injured below a nest on 7/13, was taken to The Raptor Center where he had to be euthanized. The other two were females that disappeared mid-season, leaving two males to care for chicks alone.

There were only 69 adult Ospreys identified by their bands, as the number of banded birds continues to drop. We were sad to document that there were 9 banded birds that did not return this year. Three of the returning banded ospreys were from Iowa.

We located 14 new nesting territories with a pair present and two additional nests found too late to know if the nest was occupied or active. Of these new nests, 10 of them successfully fledged chicks. There were two nests which were occupied by geese. It is interesting to note that of the 170 occupied territories this year, 80 were on osprey nesting platforms, 35 were on cell or radio towers, 31 were on ballfield lights, 22 were on a power pole or transmission tower, two were on other manmade structures and one nest was built in a tree.

The oldest male this year, was 18 years of age, with one that was 16 years of age, and six that were 15 years of age!  ALL of these older males bred successfully! Our oldest female was 15 years old and she bred successfully. There were four females that were 14 years old. All but one of these older females bred successfully. (Sadly one 14-year-old female produced a chick that got its talon caught in the nestbox and died tragically.)

The overall productivity of occupied nests which were successful this year increased to 82%!  (73% in 2020, 62% in 2019, 71% in 2018, 72% in 2017, 76% in 2016, 68% in 2015, 70% in 2014). The mean number of young fledged per successful nest was 2.11% (2.04% in 2020, 2.09% in 2019, 2.13 in 2018, 2.25 in 2017, 2.24 in 2016). The mean number of young fledged per active nest was 1.78%(1.65% in 2020,1.39% in 2019,1.64 in 2018, 1.75 in 2017,1.84 in 2016) and the mean number of young fledged per occupied nest was 1.74% (1.49% in 2020,1.28% in 2019, 1.51 in 2018, 1.62 in 2017, 1.70 in 2016, 1.65 in 2015).  These numbers reflect a notable increase in overall productivity per nest. There was one nest which has failed to fledge a chick for 15 years which was successful this year! Another nest that had failed for six years in a row, fledged chicks this year! Two others that had failed for four years both produced chicks successfully.

It is interesting to note that we have recorded 2,999 chicks that fledged from monitored nests since the inception of this project.

 

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*Successful nests are those that were known to have fledged at least one chick successfully, activenests are those where eggs are laid and occupied nests are those where pairs are present at a nest site for a period of time, regardless of the time of year or whether or not they lay.