Almost!

 Some  fun videos…..this is one of the first chicks to hatch in the metro and he is very close to fledging. Still  needs to get a little more loft, but he is working hard at it! When I was new at this osprey monitoring, I used to count the flaps….and when they get serious about fledging they will flap 30, 40, 50 times or more! They will be hopping and getting some loft and eventually hovering a few feet above the nest! It’s very exciting.…makes my heart rate go up!

Losses and thanks!

The past week has been trying….we have found three chicks dead on the ground. The first two may have blown out in storms, and the most recent was reported to me by a person in the public who saw the chick fall out of the nest when an adult took off….perhaps accidentally knocking it out. I went to look for it and it even had some food in its crop. So terribly sad. It’s what I hate about this time of year….its when things can so easily go wrong. Chicks are too big to be sheltered under mom all the time and yet they cant fly yet. Tho fledging brings its own tragedies. I know it’s hard for people to face this aspect of osprey monitoring…it’s not all sweetness and rainbows. But we have to document these losses, by taking photos and trying to learn what has happened when we can.…watching how the adults respond to these losses. It takes a strong mind and a soft heart to balance our desire to document, learn, and to care about the chicks that have been lost. On the first two deaths, there were other chicks in the nest to care for, so for the adults, life goes on. On the tragedy that occurred yesterday, it was the only chick and the adults were nowhere to be found this morning. They probably have no idea what happened to their chick.
I appreciate the report from the person who witnessed the fall of the chick.
We are anxiously preparing for our first fledges…..the window is open for a few nests now. There is always a lot of breath holding and excitement. Our initial chick counts and current counts are holding steady at many nests, tho we have had some mortalities along the way.
So below are a few sad photos of 2 of the chicks that perished. And a big, crowded, happy family that is preparing for the first fledge!

And I want to extend a very deep, heartfelt thank you to the Raptor Resource Project for their generous donation to us. We could not keep up this level of monitoring without a lot of help and the financial support they have shown us over the years has made such a huge difference. It is hard to find the right words to appropriately express my gratitude. A MILLION thanks to John Howe and everyone at the RRP!

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….

Red flag….

 News about the collapse of an osprey colony on the east coast of Virginia….very troubling. Osprey are an indicator species , at the top of the aquatic food chain, so the decline of their population reveals much to us about the health of our environment. It’s a huge red flag….please read….

https://www.whro.org/environment/2025-06-25/ospreys-are-facing-nearly-complete-collapse-on-virginias-eastern-shore-researchers-say?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6DANK1mvZLiJsLGrptDVOxtWtBP0PHjkT0IP0WL6sBv_lfRbTJmAyO1GJu6Q_aem_ArO2RPhvbgcojiqooEyr1w

June 18 at the Arboretum cam nest…saying goodbye ….

 Saying goodbye…..the female brooded the dead chick a lot in the past 24 hours and then took the body away this morning…..if you zoom in on the second image you can see she has the chicks body in her beak.…and she carries it away.

The aftermath….june 17 at the Arb cam nest

 The aftermath at the Arb cam osprey nest….mom continued to brood the deceased chick for many hours. But before midnight she gave up, and stayed off the body most of the night. At about 5 a.m. this morning ( if you roll back the video) she moves in to the nest cup at stares at the body. She is trying to come to grips with what has happened. Then she sits on the body again. The male brought a fish and she took it to the perch to eat ( a change in her behavior that tells us she understands there is no chick to feed) and then he stared in to the nest. The body is now covered by some nest material and harder to see.

Tho I try to accept these losses….sometimes it causes my human heart to hurt and tears must be shed. We loved little arb for 2.5 days, rooted for him, but this female was not equipped to be a parent. Her failures are difficult to understand or accept. I think she was just too young and her instincts were to care for herself. Ospreys are motivated by two driving forces….to survive and to reproduce. I think at this stage of her life, the first instinct was stronger and the second not fully developed. Those of us who were watching closely are hurting today….and that’s ok. It’s ok to care about the creatures that make our planet amazing. They add so much joy to our lives, and sometimes they cause us pain. Bless every hurting heart out there. I share your sadness, after devoting 32 years of my life to these birds. Hugs to every one of you. Remember that life is fragile….treasure every living creature. Life can be very short….dont waste it. Be kind.

June 16 at the Arb

 I believe the Arb chick has perished. I just watched mom back up to the edge of the nest at just after 8 pm and the chick is motionless. She walked back in to the nest and steps on the chick and it doesn’t flinch.

It’s so deeply sad….It seemed like things were going better…he seemed perkier after eating a few bites. it just wasn’t enough food to sustain him.

So many heartbreaking experiences at this nest.

Life is so fragile.

Five bites…

 From what I have seen the tiny Arb chick has gotten five bites of fish all day today. It’s a start. It’s been difficult to watch. The female almost seems afraid to feed the chick. But some progress was made today….its driven me to drink and I am having a cocktail now. My whole body tenses up as I watch. Whew. I hope more food gets in this evening….tho we are now under a tornado watch. Think good thoughts people….lots of good thoughts.

As I said earlier….sometimes cam watching and osprey watching requires great fortitude.

At the nest with the single mom, whose mate had two nests and ultimately abandoned her completely….we have lost one chick this week. Mom is now caring for just one chick. I watched her leave the chick for less than two minutes and come back with a tiny fish that they shared. She was probably unable to provide enough for two….but I hope she can bring this little one to fledge. She did it last year. I have watched so many heroic struggles for life…and my heart has broken a million times. And yet we celebrate the joys of success when they occur.

We are seeing many failures….about ten nests so far and I am still making the rounds to count chicks. Very few three chick nests, and some that had three last week, only have two this week. Sigh.

But today I am sending all my good thoughts to little Arb…cmon, buddy. This little one has done everything right….lifting its head and opening its tiny beak…..we can hear it trying to food beg. Mom, get your shit together….that little being is counting on you!

I suspect she may be very young….when I have watched the rare two year old females that have bred successfully, they also acted this incompetent. But both times they did end up raising one chick to fledge. You can see she has the instinct to feed, but she falters in the execution. Hopefully, having gotten a few bites in today, it will seem less daunting to her. The chick spins in circles cause he isnt sure where she is, and she struggles with the approach and the transfer. Fingers crossed…..let the storms fizzle, let all your good thoughts support this little family.

Hmmmmm

 There are concerns that the female is not feeding the chick at the Arb cam nest. Cam watching is not for the faint of heart. Behaviors can be hard to understand. Watching the female as she ate, she hesitated with a bite of fish in her beak and her head seemed to search for the chick….but she did not move closer to the chick to facilitate feeding. Many years ago I watched a banded two year old female osprey who hatched a chick struggle with feeding….she was so young and didn’t seem to know what to do when the egg hatched. Luckily, the male was also a banded experienced male and he took over and started feeding the chick, seemingly showing her how to do it and eventually she did “get it” and started feeding. But this male may also be young and inexperienced. He seemed confused as he watched her and watched the chick. There is a stimulation- response thing going on….the chick needs to stand up and ask for food, which he was doing this morning. Many first time breeders do fail, and maybe this is why. We have seen this before on this nest, and it’s happened on other nests. I expressed concerns earlier in how they were leaving the egg uncovered in the rain. We will see if her brain will connect the dots and do what needs to be done.…or if the male will step up and do some feeding. It can be very frustrating to watch.

I did read a very interesting book about bird senses and it talked about their vision, which is obviously very good when hunting….but because their eyes do not move in the socket like ours do, focusing their eyes on the spot right at the tip of their beak is difficult. Clearly most ospreys can and do feed chicks, but the way she seemed to be searching for the chick with a bite of fish in her beak made me wonder.

HATCHED!

 WE HAVE A HATCH AT THE ARB CAM NEST!

You can see the chick beneath mom ( zoom in) and in the second shot you can see there is part of an eggshell above her. It was cute the way Dad came and laid down on the eggshell next to mom. I tell ya sometimes the males behavior gives it away to me….he was there walking around the nest, sitting next to mom etc…and apparently this surviving egg was the probably the third one laid, hatching four days after the first one should have hatched. So break out the champagne!

If you scroll back on the live feed to about 6 a.m. and watch the males behavior….they do get excited and interested...I think the chick hatched about 6:15-6:20. Enjoy! (You can only scroll back for about 12 hours so check it out if you want to see the event….)

What’s up at the Arb?

 For those looking for updates on what is happening on the Arboretum Osprey cam….we have entered the window for hatching. During the early days of the reintroduction project that I worked on, we had so few nests that I was able to check them all every day. It was during this period that we determined that most of the time eggs hatch on day 39 of incubation. The earliest restoration project in Pennsylvania also came to the same determination. I helped put up the current Nestpole with Xcel energy way back in 2001 and have been monitoring it ever since. Ospreys originally tried to build a nest on an active power pole, so that power pole was retrofitted to prevent nesting and this current Nestpole was erected just for them. The ospreys were circling as we put up the pole and when it was up and we moved away, the ospreys landed on it immediately! It has been occupied every year since tho the occupants have changed.

This nest has had some difficulty in recent years with many changes to the ospreys that have settled there. ( I have the entire history of who the birds were every year since we put up the Nestpole.) The pair this year are new and both are unbanded so we know nothing about their history. It is unknown how old they are, and this may be their first breeding attempt. They have already run into problems when two eggs were tossed out of the nest cup (covered in an earlier post). They have continued to incubate the one egg that remained in the center of the nest, and ignored the one that was now lying outside the nest cup. In recent days I have noticed that they are sometimes leaving the remaining viable egg uncovered, even in the rain. The embryo undergoes rapid growth towards the end of incubation so it’s far more troubling to see an egg uncovered at this stage of development than earlier in the incubation process. How much time uncovered is too much is unknown. We will see. I also observed the male copulating with the female yesterday which is also unusual for this stage of breeding. In my 32 years of experience watching these birds, I have seen them start copulating again when they know a nest is failing….as if they know something has gone wrong and they want to start over. I don’t know if this nest is failing or not, but these are just some behavioral observations I thought you might be interested in. I also noted that the female has sometimes been eating on the nest, which is not the normal place for them to eat during incubation. Usually when the male,brings a fish to the incubating female, she takes it and leaves to eat, many times just to the perch on the Nestbox. The male incubates in her absense. They usually only begin eating on the nest when chicks have hatched or are hatching. So we have some very mixed messages on this nest.

With Ospreys, eggs are laid sequentially, about 2-3 days apart. Egg laying takes a lot of energy and laying them a few days apart allows the female to recoup some of her energy in between eggs. Ospreys usually begin incubating from the day the first egg is laid. This means that the eggs will also hatch sequentially, ( asynchronous hatching) which sets up a hierarchy in the ages of the chicks with the third chick significantly younger and smaller, and puts younger siblings at a disadvantage. The latest hatched chick is more likely to die in the nest, which has been seen on this nest. But it also gives the older chick a headstart and increases its chance of survival to adulthood, especially if food supply is unpredictable. Some ospreys do use a strategy called delayed incubation, which means they do not begin full time incubation until all eggs are laid. This will cause eggs to hatch closer together, ( synchronous hatching). Many birds delay incubation until all eggs are laid but ospreys usually do not. There is a lot written about asynchronous vs synchronous hatching….too much to go in to here. Feel free to google that! I will put a link to a great article about it below…

Having explained all that, we only have one egg and it is not known if it was the first, second or third egg laid….so it’s harder to know when it should hatch. Day 39 has passed, so we will wait and watch to see if it hatches later. So stay tuned! I just thought some of this info might help people understand and enjoy watching this nest.

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/2021/05/what-is-asynchronous-hatching-and-why-do-ospreys-hatch-their-eggs-days-apart/

Overdue update

 So much going on in the osprey world here in Minnesota…and I am having a hard time keeping up and finding time to answer emails or write posts here! Yeah, you hear it every year and every year it gets worse. We have ten new nests already and a lot of nests that have been inactive in recent years are now active again. So we are seeing a rise in the number of nests to monitor, without an equal increase in the number of volunteer monitors….so you know who takes up the slack!

I was able to finally confirm that we had a male going between two nests early on, and yet when his original mate finally laid eggs, he abandoned the new mate, who had laid eggs first. He did help the new mate incubate at first, like he was hedging his bets. (His original female had been late in returning). She is a female who lost her mate mid season last year, after chicks had hatched. She managed to care for one chick to fledge successfully. We thought she had found a new, and good mate but now she finds herself alone again….and this time she had to get thru much of the incubation phase on her own. She would leave to get a fish and quickly return , often to wolf down a fish perched just outside the nest. Now she has hatched her chicks. I saw her leave the wee ones for 3 minutes and return with a small fish. Will she be able to pull this off? I have checked her again and she has survived the first two weeks of being a mom and we are seeing two chicks so far. Many of you may be watching the Hellgate osprey nest cam in Montana where the female, Iris, has faced a similar situation for many years. But she was never able to protect the eggs on her own to get them to hatch as our female has. Her eggs were repeatedly predated by Ravens. So this goes to show how strong this female is, and caring for chicks alone has been her lot in life. I know this may not have a happy ending….but I will keep watching. She is a tough cookie and we are rooting for her.

We had another male that seemed to be going between two nests, and in that case he seemed to choose the new mate and new territory , neglecting his original nest….and as is often the case, that nest has failed. That female gave up. Not many females can pull this off alone.

We are starting to see a lot of failed nests too….many of them failing for unknown reasons. Some have not laid eggs, and are just housekeepers. Some have laid eggs but something happened to the eggs along the way. Some appear to be incubating too long without a hatch. (infertile or damaged eggs) Some have been displaced by humans removing their nests and they have struggled to find a new place to rebuild. I am spending a lot of time trying to read bands to document the movements of some of these birds when possible. I read the band on a female at a new nest, and later that day was able to read a band on a male not too far away. When I looked the band numbers up I discovered that was a mother and son! Most of our birds are unbanded now, but when there is a band to read, I work hard at reading it and some bands are harder to read than others. Woof.

Good news/bad news…

 Well it’s a good news /bad news kind of day. First the bad news…..overnight two of the arboretum cam nest eggs ended up out of the nest cup. I don’t know how the first one got out there….but it looked cracked to me and may have been unfertilized. Later in the day it got stepped on and cracked further into small pieces ( seen above the female in the first photo). The second egg ended up in the lower left corner very suddenly and I watched the video over and over to figure it out….i think when the male came with a fish, and the female got up to get it, the egg may have been stuck to her belly feathers…and then it dropped off where she was standing with the fish. It remains there. The nest cup looks wet and muddy, so that may explain why it stuck to her. It’s sad, but we hope the remaining egg will be ok. So the first photo is of the Arb cam nest. Other photos from another nest.

The good news….our two first nests have begun hatching! I was at one nest this morning while it was still foggy and drizzling….and only 43 degrees. The male was sticking very close by….and he would only leave to get more nest material. Sadly some of it was landscape fabric. I wish people would be more careful with what they leave laying on the ground. When the female got up to look beneath, the male stood next to her and stared into the nest cup. Sweet. Then when she settled back into incubation / brooding, he snuggled down right next to her! He was not sitting on eggs, but he was giving her moral support! This is our oldest banded male now….20 years old! Ya gotta love this guys attentiveness, and care. The photos are horrible but maybe you can make out two heads in one image and then another one where they are both staring down into the nest.

Then I went on to another nest where the adults were pretty darn interested in what was happening in the nest cup! I did not see a feeding yet….but I know these touching signs that something special is happening!

May 19, 2025…

 There is a lot going on behind the scenes as we try to deal with some issues….dangerous situations for ospreys that need to be addressed. It takes time to evaluate situations and behaviors, decide what would be best for the birds, and contact proper authorities for help. We have already found ten new nests! I am trying to identify (banded or not banded) all birds, and read the bands that I have found. It takes a lot of time. And tomorrow the window opens for our earliest nests to begin hatching….

It’s fun when I find new young birds that are offspring of some of our older, banded birds! So many generations of ospreys!
I am also still searching for some birds who had their nests removed and were seen briefly….but where did they go?
I hope my readers will let me know if new nests pop up….keep your eyes on cell towers, power lines, ballfield lights.
As the population grows we also need more nest monitors….so If you have a spotting scope, are able to commit to checking one or more nests weekly, and would like to get involved, please shoot me an email at osprey.mn@gmail.com. We have a list of guidelines to direct your observations as we try to collect the same data on all nests.
We are already seeing some potential problems, failures. I was watching a nest that had two adults a few weeks ago, but last weekend I watched for many hours and never saw the male. This weekend again, I saw no male and the female left the nest to get a fish and she wolfed it down perched on the nest edge before she hopped back into the nest to resume incubation. This doesn’t look good. On another nest we have a female incubating, but we don’t ever see a male helping her. We believe this might be a situation where one male was attending two nests, but since eggs have been laid, he is primarily attending to only one nest. This is often the outcome of these polygynous situations. One nest will be the primary nest and will get most of the males attention and eventually the other nest will fail. We are trying to document this, but a male that is rarely there, can be very hard to identify! I am wondering if the nest where the female left to get her own fish may be in the same situation. Does her “mate” have another nest? I run back and forth and spend hours trying to identify these males to confirm my suspicions. If males are banded, we can prove what is occurring, but if they aren’t banded, it can be more difficult.
We are continuing to see the population develop into loose colonies….ospreys attract other ospreys, so new nests pop up between two other nests! And the closeness of nests can provide more opportunities for males to spread their DNA! It’s just instinct, folks! We must remember that the two driving forces of these birds is to survive, and to reproduce!
I am sure we will be announcing our first hatches very soon!

Three eggs at the Arb.

 We have three eggs on the Arboretum cam Nest! The clutch is probably complete. It was laid overnight….shortly after midnight I could still see only two eggs but early this morning, just before 6 am, I see three…so in the wee hours of May 10 she laid the third egg.

First egg at the Arb cam nest…

 The first egg arrived at the Arboretum Cam nest today….about 10:05. If you can roll back the video to about 10 a.m. today (May 4) you can watch her “in labor”. Then it was pretty cute when the male came and was trying to peek under her to see it!

Busy busy!

 Well I am up to my eyeballs this time of year….still working my way around to over 180 nests for the first time, reading bands, even the silver ones ( ooof) , and figuring out what is going on at each nest. We have some chronically late birds that leave an opening for other birds to either take over their nests, or copulate with their mate. But in the end, the territorial birds usually win back their nest. We documented this so many years ago, observing so many extra pair copulations, refuting the myth that ospreys mate for life. It’s a game of musical nests every spring, tho most long time mated pairs do end up back in their territory, if they survived migration. Not all do survive. It looks like our oldest male, who would have been 22 this year, did not make it back to his territory. It makes me very sad. And tho I thought we had lost other banded birds, many of them have shown up. But I have to warn the nest monitors to keep looking at legs for bands, even if the first birds seen were unbanded, new birds! Things do change quite often.

I have had fun running into long time monitors and property owners that I haven’t seen recently….I love to connect with the people who support this project in various ways. It’s so much fun to spend some time watching ospreys with the monitors….and getting to interpret behaviors, vocalizations etc. After all these years of observing ospreys, I do have different perspectives on what’s going on!

We are seeing a pair at the Arboretum Cam nest….they seem to be a totally new unbanded pair, so we have no info about them. They are behaving like young birds, so we will see what happens.

I thought you would be interested in seeing these HUGE nests….ospreys work so hard to build and rebuild their nests, and I love it when humans leave them in place. So many nests were removed this year, sigh….leaving ospreys scrambling to rebuild somewhere.

And I am deeply grateful for those who make financial donations to support this big effort. I couldnt do this without a lot of different kinds of help.

Who is at the Arb cam nest?

 A lot of people are asking about the pair of ospreys seen lately on the Arboretum Cam nest. Are they the same pair as last year? No…..the banded male from last year disappeared, while he still had a chick depending on him, so that is why we haven’t seen him this year. The male seen recently is unbanded and new. The same question about the female has been more difficult to answer. Last years female was unbanded and so is this new one. I have spent a lot of time looking at her markings and comparing them to photos of last years female. I have tried to capture screen shots from a similar angle. Studies have shown that the dorsal feather pattern is one that remains the same throughout an ospreys life. So let’s look first at this years female and then last years female….to me these appear to be different females. Compare those patterns and see what you think!

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!

More and more….

 Just to get you excited….a beautiful shot from Ann Merritt. Our old friends are trickling into town and often it’s our older, experienced birds that return first. Today I read a band on a 20 year old Osprey! Many nests are still empty or have one bird waiting for its mate, but I think the next week will be a busy one for monitors as more ospreys show up in their home territories!

Old friends!

 We now have at least two ospreys back on their nests….one on the east side and one on the west side! I have read my first band too….an 18 year old! Hope his mate returns soon. Fingers crossed. We have set our clocks based upon this pair for quite a few years….the first to return, the first to lay eggs, the first to hatch and the first to fledge.

Oh another report just came in about ospreys on another nest, so they are arriving all over the metro now!

They are right on schedule! As the annual report said, our first osprey returned last year on March 31. (This same bird!)The last week of March is the usual time if we dont have a lingering winter with frozen lakes.

Always good to see old friends…..

Here we go!

 Our first osprey has been confirmed back on its nest. I will read the band tomorrow! So osprey season has officially begun!

Soon?

 We are probably going to see our first ospreys returning to their nests in the next week. I hope the experienced monitors will return this year, please do send me an email letting me know. If any of you are able to take on an additional nest or two, let me know that as well. I will not be able to do as much as I did last year. Keep looking up!

2024 DATA RESULTS!

                                     2024 OSPREY RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION SUMMARY

By Vanessa Greene

The 2023-24 winter was very dry with little snow so our first Ospreys in the spring of 2024 were observed on 3/31, followed by many others in the first two weeks of April. In my 31st year of monitoring Osprey nests in the eight county Twin Cities metro area, the known population was somewhat stagnant. The number of occupied nests monitored was almost the same as last year, with a slightly lower failure rate, and an increased mortality rate over last year. The summer started out with heavy early rains and the second half of the breeding season was hot and dry. The early Ospreys laid the first eggs by April 15!

There were 183 nests which were occupied* by a pair of adult ospreys. (182 in 2023). There may be more nests we do not know about and we hope the public will continue to report new nests to us. We discovered 9 new nests, but also had previously occupied nests that were empty this year. Eggs were laid in 169 active* nests (174 in 2023). There were 134 nests that had at least one chick that was confirmed to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age (129 in 2023). We documented 49 nests which failed (53 in 2023, 35 in 2022). We separate failed nests into two distinct subcategories; there were 12 nests where a pair was present but no eggs were laid (9 last year) and 4 additional nests where we are not sure if eggs were laid or not.

There were 34 nests where eggs were laid but they failed to successfully fledge a single chick or the cause of failure was unknown (44 last year). (Not laying eggs is considered to be a kind of nest failure by other scientists.) Out of those 34 failed nests where eggs were laid, there were 20 nests where hatching did occur but all chicks died. There were 13 nests where no signs of hatching were ever observed. The 2023 failure rate dropped to 27%. This represents a slight decrease over last year! (in 2023 the failure rate was 29%, In 2022 the failure rate was 21%, 2021 the failure rate was 18%, 2020 it was 27%, in 2019 it was 39%, in 2018 it was 29%, in 2017 it was 28%, and in 2016 it was 25%.)

There were 257 chicks that were known to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age! (253 in 2023, 264 in 2022, 295 in 2021). Most successful nests had two chicks this year, with 64 nests with two chicks, 30 nests with three chicks, and 39 nests that produced a single chick.

The known mortalities of chicks this year were higher than last year with 57 chicks which were known to have died or disappeared before fledging, (47 in 2023, 23 in 2022, 26 in 2021). In addition, there were 9 nests where signs of hatching were observed, with adults feeding chicks, but they all died before we could get an accurate count. The causes for the increasingly high mortality rate among chicks are uncertain, but may be related to climate change. Many males seemed to be missing from nests more than usual, perhaps due to difficulties finding fish, requiring them to travel further, and be gone longer when hunting. Many females were observed leaving chicks alone to help provide food. We had at least 8 single parent nests. Many lakes had high algae levels which made fishing difficult. These circumstances may have resulted in brood reduction, starving chicks and increased opportunities for predation. There were 7 known adult mortalities and 3 banded males that disappeared mid-season, (but did not show up at The Raptor Center.)

There were only 45 adult Ospreys identified by their bands, as the number of banded birds continues to drop. There were four additional adults with silver bands that were unable to be read. We were sad to document that there were 6 color banded birds that did not return this year. Only one of the returning banded ospreys was from another state (Iowa).

There were 6 nests that were removed from cell towers or lights over the winter. We located 9 new nesting territories with a pair present. Of these new nests, 5 of them successfully fledged chicks, with outcome unknown on 1 nest. It is interesting to note that of the 183 occupied territories this year, 84 were on osprey nesting platforms, 44 were on cell or radio towers, 29 were on ballfield lights, 21 were on a power pole or transmission tower, 4 were on other manmade structures and 1 nest was built in a tree

The oldest male this year, was 21 years of age, with one that was 19, one that was 18 years of age. ALL of these older males bred successfully! Our oldest female was 18 years old, with three that were 17 years of age and all bred successfully.

The overall productivity of occupied nests which were successful this year rose slightly to 74%! (71% in 2023, 79% in 2022, 82% in 2021, 73% in 2020, 62% in 2019, 71% in 2018, 72% in 2017, 76% in 2016, 68% in 2015).

The mean number of young fledged per successful nest dropped slightly to 1.92% (1.96% in 2023, 2.00% in 2022, 2.11% in 2021, 2.04% in 2020, 2.09% in 2019, 2.13 in 2018, 2.25 in 2017, 2.24 in 2016).

The mean number of young fledged per active nest rose to 1.52% (1.45% in 2023, 1.65% in 2022, 1.78% in 2021, 1.65% in 2020,1.39% in 2019,1.64 in 2018, 1.75 in 2017,1.84 in 2016).

The mean number of young fledged per occupied nest rose slightly to 1.40% (1.39% in 2023, 1.58% in 2022,1.74% in 2021, 1.49% in 2020,1.28% in 2019, 1.51 in 2018, 1.62 in 2017, 1.70 in 2016).

A small group of nests had the chicks banded with silver bands only. Three chicks received silver bands while in rehab, prior to release. In spite of many days of searching, and reading 14 silver bands, we were unable to locate any of these rehabbed chicks to confirm survival post release. We will continue to watch for them in future years.

It is interesting to note that we have recorded 3,773 chicks that fledged from monitored nests since the inception of this project.

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*Successful nests are those that were known to have fledged at least one chick successfully, active nests are those where eggs are laid and occupied nests are those where pairs are present at a nest site for a period of time, regardless of the time of year or whether or not they lay.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2024

 Let me start with the acknowledgements for 2024…..and the data results will be posted in a few days!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2024

There are so many people who have been instrumental in helping Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch continue this Osprey research. This year, 2024, marked my 31st year of monitoring all known nests in the eight-county metro area surrounding the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, and I could not do this without a great deal of help. The careful, monitoring of these nests and the consistent collection and analysis of data over so many years may prove to be a significant contribution to understanding the world we live in, the health of our environment as well as overall productivity and behavior of this population of Ospreys.

Special thanks to Carol Christians, Alice Stoddard, Dani Porter Lucero, Meg Smith, Debbie De Frank Jordan, Ann Merritt, Larry Luebben, Jack Kimmerle, Pat Norton, Jean and Rob DeZeeuw, Donna Daubendiek, Rick Endo, Mary Mullet, Cindy Angerhofer, Stephanie Burley, Allison McGinnis, Brenda Goeltl, Ken Fischer, Gail Isaak, Marjorie Heap, Vicky Douglas, Tammy Holmer, Ann Altman, Lisa Gilliland, James Kelley and Will Hathaway for sharing their observations, their commitment to this effort, their photos, information, and their love for these birds. I am deeply, profoundly grateful to those who kept their commitments and kept an eye on the nests throughout the season. With the continuing growth of the project, I simply can’t do it all alone.

Thanks to all the private property owners who are such important and wonderful hosts to our Ospreys, and who have provided me access to these nests for monitoring.

A very deep, heartfelt thanks to all who contributed financially to this project in 2024: Ruth Rechtzigel, Debbie Jordan, Rick Endo, Carol Craig, Cindy Angerhofer, Betsy Kerr, Ann Lund, Allison McGinnis, John Muelken, and Jonna Bollum!

A huge thanks to The Raptor Resource Project for their generous ongoing support.

I am deeply grateful for all the help I have received in so many different forms, and for showing your faith in my ongoing efforts to continue this research study.

Vanessa Greene

February 2025

Osprey.mn@gmail.com

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