Second egg and third osprey!

 And it was a cool, rainy night. While this may be evidence of this behavioral strategy called delayed incubation….we have never seen this before on this nest. As I reviewed the tape from overnight not only did I see that a second egg was laid this morning…..a third osprey was trying to land several times. It was unbanded and I suspect its the former female who was too young to breed. She may still see this as “home” and tho she may not be very aggressive, she may still think this male should feed her.

One of the reasons I find this theory about delayed incubation odd in this circumstance, is that leaving eggs uncovered also leaves them very vulnerable to predation. In a situation where Eagles have shown themselves to be a threat earlier this year, it kind of has me scratching my head. BUT since we have seen different females here and this one arrived more recently, she might not be aware of the eagles. In fact, the reason for the sequential females may be related to the threat the eagles posed to earlier females. Since females are stuck on the nest more than males, they are more vulnerable to attacks from eagles or other predators.

It will be interesting to see if a second egg changes their nighttime incubation behavior. Photo is the extra unbanded osprey trying to land while the female is on the nest. ( this happened several times) I also periodically hear the male chirping which is a vocalization that is used when another osprey is in the territory. The female on the nest stood up and sent the message that the visitor should not land!