Chicks busting out all over….

 Well I got out my trusty osprey chart where I keep track of incubation dates….and from which I can project hatch dates….and checked 5 nests which were projected to hatch today. All five of them were hatching! Woo hoo. Damn I am good at this! Even after 33 years, it’s still very exciting….watching those early feedings. We can’t see the chicks as they have just busted out of an egg about the size of a jumbo chicken egg, and they can barely lift their heads. But I have learned the behavioral clues, which can be subtle. I keep copious notes as I watch until it all adds up to HATCHING! One of the tell tale signs is that the males get very interested….they often come and watch the feeding of the wee ones. At one nest the big tip was that the male came to the nest and picked up a half eaten fish! Ha! I knew I just missed a feeding. But I kept watching and it wasn’t long until mom was offering more tiny bits to the unseen chicks. It doesnt take much to fill up those tiny crops. I always look at the adults crops too for info….full or empty. If they are full, I might have to wait for a feeding….but if they are on the empty side, I wait, as a feeding may come fairly quickly.

There are a lot of signs of hatching, but none of them in themselves are definitive….except one. When the male, brings a fish, does the female take it and leave the nest to eat? No chicks. If she starts ripping the head off the fish in the nest, and then starts dipping low in to the nest….she is feeding the wee ones. But sometimes you might have to wait a long time for this confirmation. ( thus my interest in the state of the adults crops). And brooding looks just like incubating! I can’t stress that enough. So just looking at the females body position will not give you the definitive answer. Sometimes they sit higher, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they are more restless, and sometimes they aren’t. One thing I have learned over the years is that a new set of parents, perhaps hatching chicks for the first time, will get REALLY excited….but older more experienced adults can be much harder to read. It just takes time….watching closely, taking good notes and adding it all up. Its SO much fun!