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!