After the storm….

 We had a wild night here in Minnesota, with a big storm going thru in the wee hours of the morning. I have been working so hard to get chicks counted on all nests and we have sadly lost some along the way. But after a night like last night, with a reported six tornados confirmed, I tried to hit as many nests today as is humanly possible, targeting the area where the tornados supposedly hit the hardest, on the western side. I made it to 28 nests! I am happy to report not a single chick was missing from those nests! I found one nest that was down one chick but the monitor confirmed that loss had occurred prior to this storm. There were trees down, branches down, but NO OSPREYS down!

They know how to survive! Now there are many more nests to check and I hope many of the monitors are out doing that today.

Some monitors had found a dead chick on the ground on Friday after we had torrential rains on Wednesday and Thursday….and horrible heat and humidity the weekend before. It’s never easy to handle. I have found several nests with changing counts as chicks disappear along the way. So far the mortalities are significant, but in the realm of normal. The failed nests are climbing, but still similar to past years.

I had to share a fun little photo of a nest I visited yesterday….this nest used to have one of our favorite banded males for many years, and last year, mid season he just disappeared. We could not find him and he didn’t show up at the raptor center. That female managed to care for her two chicks alone. So the spring started with some sadness without our dear old friend, but this female quickly found a new mate. I didn’t think I could love him the way I loved the older banded one…but this fellow and his family have won my heart. When I was watching them yesterday, with three big, healthy, beautiful chicks crowded under Momma, one of them pushed his head out between Moms legs and looked up at her….with another one leaning in as if to photo bomb me…looking right at me. It just made me laugh out loud. They looked so happy, and a little gooney! So in spite of the loss we suffered here last year, they have bounced back and have a very lovely family.

And a day after a big storm with no known losses so far, it’s a cause to celebrate….