Eggs already!

 I suppose some of you are wondering what’s going on at the Arboretum cam nest. As some of you may remember, the male from last year, banded MS, suddenly disappeared when he still had a chick to feed. The female had already begun her migration. The chick was alone for a few days and then the youngster disappeared too and the last sighting of her on the nest revealed a large shadow that chased her off. I searched for both of them for days and found nothing. Several other males showed up on the nest after that, and MS provided no nest defense if he were alive and in the area. They don’t abandon their offspring either, so we presumed he had perished. There were several eagles in the area at that time, which may offer a possible explanation. So it is not surprising that MS has not been seen this year. Neither has the female. 

But we have had sporadic brief visits on the cam nest from another banded male, PZ. He has been the territorial male on another nest less than a mile south of the cam nest. He has been seen on that nest with a female. The female had some difficulties when she got some landscape fabric stuck to her talon and was flying around with this fabric trailing behind her. Apparently this was called in to the Raptor Center and they contacted me to see if I could catch her, but she was behind locked gates, and was able to fly. I rechecked her the next day and she appeared to be free of the landscape fabric that was still lying on the nest. As many of you know, ospreys are known for picking up weird stuff to line their nests, and sometimes this can be catastrophic. Chicks have died from becoming entangled in twine and other man made materials…..so it’s important for people to not leave that stuff lying in the ground, and sometimes nests may need to be cleaned out. (The photo I have of one week old chicks on the top of this page was taken when I went up in a bucket truck to clean out large bundles of twine in a nest many years ago!) Today I witnessed the same thing at another nest…a female with some landscape fabric attached to her foot as she flew. She kept flying and trying to get free of it and she finally did. When I saw that this material landed in an open grassy area where she might see it, I hiked out and picked it up to dispose of it properly. Whew! 

 Meanwhile, I am still seeing PZ going back and forth between these two nests.  At one nest, he has a female and at the other he doesn’t. But it seems as if things are “unsettled” between him and the female at the other nest. We have not seen her come to the cam nest. So I guess UNSETTLED is the headline. We will see how this plays out, and where PZ decides to put down roots, and with what female! He was the first male on the cam nest last year as well, before MS returned, so he has a definite interest in that territory. 

Overall, things are weird. We still have many empty nests, birds missing, a lot of banded birds that have not been seen. And yet I found a nest today  that has already laid eggs! This is one of the earliest dates for incubation so far. I will check my records for that, but April 12 seems early. Last year our first incubation date was April 14, and that seemed early! I waited and watched for what happened when the male returned with a fish, since sometimes females sit to “test” the nest for comfort before she really lays eggs….but when the female took the fish to eat, the male stared into the nest cup,and settled into incubating posture. So it’s for real!