Growing fast…

 I have been so pleased to watch the female at the Arb really doing better every day at developing her parenting skills. The little chick has been well fed and Mom has even figured out how to shade her little one. Whew. I am watching little Arb putting on weight each day, and these past few days I am noticing that the next big transition for the chick is beginning. I notice some little puffs of down on the nest as he/she approaches two weeks of age. This is when they begin to lose their light colored down and their heads and bodies turn a darker color. It’s kind of the ugly stage, when they look like a prehistoric creature. But when they are approaching three weeks of age, they start to get their head feathers and will begin to look like a real osprey! The feathers grow in from the top to the bottom….head feathers first and then what are called pin feathers start poking out on their back. The chicks grow SO fast….Alan Poole, one of the osprey experts says they grow to 70-80% of their adult size in the first 30 days!

Even now, every morning when I check in on them first thing in the morning 5:30 ish, I feel like he grew so much overnight! I also am usually catching a feeding at that time which is reassuring.

I am glad we finally are having some smooth sailing for this osprey family, after such a difficult start. We are gonna have a couple of stinking hot days before it cools a bit…so I hope they get thru this…with lots of fish and lots of shade from mom for Little Arb.