September 30!

 September 30 and it’s in the upper 80s with a dewpoint close to 70…..awful. But none the less I went to check on all the chicks / dads I saw last week. Ha! only one pair was gone! I still saw two chicks at different nests, with one Dad delivering a fish….PLUS Lil Arb and her Dad, delivering many fish to her today! The past two weeks I watched one chick with her Dad who was always present, eating near her, watching over her…but those two were not found today. But two other nests still had a chick. One of those was the chick that was the very last to fledge in the metro area….so she has just been flying for one month now. I always hope for them to have a good month of being fed, and having time to learn stuff before migration. But as is often the case, this chick is always near the nest so probably hasnt learned to catch fish yet. And even tho it was pretty unpleasant to be hiking around with the scope and tripod, it was a joy to see these young ospreys….photos below. I noticed that one of them has eyes that are almost yellow now, with the younger one still having eyes that are that light pumpkin orange. I saw Dad deliver a fish to the younger one. Any day that I can still find an osprey to watch is a good day!