More losses…

 So many events have unfolded in the osprey world this past week…and I always feel bad when I cant find time to write posts here!

Where do I begin? First of all….the photo I posted several posts ago of the single female with her only remaining chick…after her older, very reliable male disappeared. Other males were hanging around and she was having to leave to get fish. Well, after a couple weeks, and after another of her chicks died, that male returned to his nest! I am still completely baffled. But now he is around all the time, as reliable a mate as he was before the absence. How bizarre! I can offer no explanations. But this older male has always been one of my favorites so I am overjoyed that he is allright.

Now back to our rehabbed male who was released last Tuesday. As I was watching that nest on Thursday, a banded male landed briefly on the nest….just long enough for me to see that he had double bands, a color band and a silver federal band. My heart started racing! The other male was not around. The two chicks immediately started hollering for food and he leaned away and took off so I was unable to read his band. About an hour later the unbanded male, Kisa, was on the nest, and he started chirping….the vocalization they use when they see another osprey in their territory. They were all looking up and I saw a male with a split in his tail….exactly like the one that can be seen in the photo of the rehabbed male being released. So, tho I didnt read his band, so I cant say for sure, I do believe that was the older rehabbed male who has lived there for many years. Sadly, we have not seen him since. So he is flying well, easily made his way back to his territory but chose not to fight for the territory or care for the chicks. So far anyway. It’s been difficult to watch the chicks there who are getting enough parental care to survive, but are so often left alone. The female is oddly gone for long periods of time, even days. And this new male still drops fish, but does not hang around a lot. Yesterday the first chick fledged….luckily I was there to see it and he flew well, circling around the area and then finally landing on a rooftop across the road from his nest. I watched him there for 3 hours. He did fly off and loop around the area but returned to that roof top. So take offs and landings were solid and I am sure he could see the nest from there. I figured he would get back to the nest when he got hungry! I had to leave for a few hours, as it was raining and I had a sick cat at home….but returned later that afternoon but I was unable to find him at all. In fact I could not see the other chick in the nest either. The mom came back to the nest and she wandered around the nest picking up leftover fish bits, and no other chicks head popped up, noone asked for food. I watched mom for 90 minutes and saw no chicks. She finally departed, and I walked all around in the rain, until I was soaked, and quite sad. Most chicks first flights are short and successful….I have seen it hundreds of times. But nothing is normal on this nest this year. I finally left. I got up at the crack of dawn today and returned to the nest hoping to see both chicks….but there was only one. Sigh. I watched all morning and Kisa came with a fish for this remaining chick. I went home, checked on the kitty and checked a couple of other nests and came back. Still just the one chick, with occasional visits from Kisa. Again, I walked all around looking, listening but found no clues about where the other chick went. Usually if a healthy chick ends up on the ground, they will food beg if they see an adult with a fish. I heard nothing. I have located and rescued many chicks this way…but this chick seems to have disappeared. I will look again tomorrow, and I also keep searching any and all lakes in the area in search of our banded male. Its hard to accept all the sad twists and turns on this and other nests.

And if all that isnt enough difficult stuff….last friday I recieved word that a nest on a transmission had blown down. So at the crack of dawn on Saturday I went out to check that situation….and found three chicks perished. What a disastrous year for our ospreys. sigh.