July 24, 2023…

 After my visit to the single females nest yesterday, 7:30-4, it was troubling that she never showed up at all. So one of our volunteer monitors, Pat, went there in the evening and lo and behold the female was there! In 90 minutes she brought two fish and fed the chicks! Totally normal behavior, tho odd that she had not been there at all during my time there during the day. The new male, Kisa did not show up at all during Pats visit, tho I had seen him bring fish during the day. Today I was there at 6:30 am and the female was there with the chicks, so it appears that she spent the night with them. She hung out on the nest for 3.5 hours, however, in spite of the chicks food begging, she did not feed them at all. Their crops were empty. At 10 am she flew off and did not return. I waited for two hours and then went searching for her. I went to a nearby lake and scanned the lake, the trees, every nook and cranny to no avail. I saw people fishing there successfully so a good spot for ospreys, but she was not there. I returned to the nest and the male was there, and one chick was eating a fish! It must have been a small fish because he finished quickly and clearly had some food in his crop, but not a lot. The other chick remained empty. It was 89 degrees and muggy so I ran off to Starbucks for an iced coffee! When I got back the chicks were alone. The male returned quickly tho with a bigger fish and the chicks took turns stealing it and eating, and when the fish was finished both had fairly full crops. The make remained in the nest during this time, and at one point another osprey flew over and he moved closer to the chicks to protect them. They had no breakfast but had a good lunch. I left at about 3 pm. Now we are not seeing the two adults there together, and they are acting like a divorced couple with shared custody! I dont know what to make of all this, especially the females failure to feed them any breakfast, but she fed them well last evening! If they continue to share feeding duties, the chicks will probably be allright. I can make no sense of the females behavior….or for this unrelated male to be doing some feedings, usually in the afternoon. WTH? Neither one of them is acting like a fulltime parent.

We also have discovered at least three other nests with a single female.….and there may be more I havent discovered yet. We have never had so many adult mortalities mid season. Two of our older experienced banded males have disappeared and we are grieving their absense. We have no idea what happened, tho one observer reported seeing eagles and ospreys fighting at one of these nests. The females are struggling…one nest has lost two chicks and the female is trying to care for the remaining chick. At another nest the female is caring for two chicks. It can take some time to figure out that a male is missing at this time of year since, when chicks are big and hungry all the time, the males are fishing full time…..so its common to find no male at a nest. But when we find the female gone too, it’s often a sign that she is a single parent. If we find fewer chicks in a nest it can also be a clue that the female has been unable to provide enough food for all chicks to survive.

And I have not been able to get to all nests as often as I would like…there just arent enough hours in a day, and days in a week for me to get to all the nests. ( and of course I am spending too much time at this one troubled nest trying to figure out whats happening.) I encourage all the nest monitors to try to locate two adults on every nest, even if it means return visits or just waiting. Something is going on that I cant explain….but we need to make a point of looking for both adults, especially if only one adult was seen on the last visit. I know its not always easy to locate males this time of year. And when we do see two adults, thats a very important piece of info to put in the reports. A huge thanks to all the nest monitors who are toughing out this brutal week of extremely hot and muggy weather. I know it’s not easy, or pleasant….tho it’s not too bad at 6 am! And now, I have to go to bed.