Soon!

I know the Osprey people’s thoughts are starting to turn to our friends in south and Central America....some may begin their return journey next month. I have been working thru January on the annual report for 2018, and hope to start posting some acknowledgments and results in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!

Happy holidays to all....

As our days become shorter and shorter, we think of our winged friends fishing in warmer waters....hope all have successfully survived migration. I send out a big thanks to all who have helped me watch over our Ospreys here in Minnesota, and a wish for happy holidays to all who read this page and offer support in so many different ways. May you all enjoy these quiet days as we contemplate the end of this year and set our sights on a new year and the return of our Osprey friends. After the holidays I will begin the huge task of pulling together all the data from 2018. 

My very best wishes to each and every one of you...

Nice article by Jim Williams in the Star Tribune today!
Thanks Jim!
http://www.startribune.com/raptors-adapt-well-to-life-in-the-city/499025761/

Close to the end?

We all hate this time of year huh? Not all Ospreys are gone yet tho....I saw a chick eating a fish near  it’s nest yesterday and just got a few reports of others seen in the metro this weekend.  Many nests are empty tho, and there is a silence at many nest sites that makes me feel lonely.  The strong and dramatic change in our weather here in Minnesota last Monday seems to have carried a lot of our friends off in a southerly direction. Those north winds were what they were waiting for to make the journey easy. This is the time of year that some of us search for a brief sighting of an osprey just to savor their beauty, their loud food begging, their devotion to their offspring....just to gaze at those bright yellow eyes, those spectacular talons grasping a fish, their dramatic wingspan one last time.  We still have work to do repairing some nests and my big task of writing the annual report will fill many hours this winter. I send good thoughts to all my winged friends, and to all those precious , irreplaceable volunteers who help me watch over all these nests.

New nests!

Believe it or not, we are STILL finding new nests! I recieved an email last night from a volunteer who is monitoring another nest, that she kept hearing faint food begging near her home. It was too far away from the nest she watches to be hearing those birds. So she and her husband went exploring, and she found a nest on a cell tower nearby. I went out there at 6:30 this morning to check it out. Easily found the nest, with no birds. I waited. Eventually I heard a juvenile food begging and he came to the nest, whining. It didn’t take too long for the male to bring a fish and drop it. I could see that he was banded, but he took off quickly so I could not read it. As the chick was eating, I still heard some food begging and eventually the adult female arrived. She is unbanded. Although most females have begun their migration at this time, she was still here and based upon the chicks behavior and eye color, it looks like this nest was a late one. I watched the chick and Mom and finally the male returned and perched where I could read his band. No other chicks were seen or heard. How lucky that we found this nest and I was able to get all the required data to add to our annual report! Thanks to Jean and Rod for listening and following their ears! This is often how we find new nests. Pay attention to flying birds, vocalizations, and searching for cell towers, ballfield lights, and other man made structures. We hope that the birding public will share such observations with us, as we are making a noble effort to monitor all nests in the eight county metro area, and I find many, but not all of them. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at osprey.mn@gmail.com. We really need the public’s help with this effort. I have found so many new nests in recent weeks, that it makes me wonder how many I don’t know about!

The price we pay for caring....

We are very busy confirming successful fledging of the chicks on all nests. In the process I have stumbled upon several new nests, or nests I  didn’t know about! It still remains interesting at this stage of the breeding season. I came upon a new nest being built in the past few weeks and the banded male is from Iowa. It’s a little unusual for a male to travel that far from his fledging site, tho we have had an occasional male from a different state in the past.

I can also share with my long term readers that the male who successfully raised three chicks on his own last year, after his mate died /disappeared , has successfully fledged one chick with his new mate this year. It was a joyful experience to watch this young chick, whose parents are both so attentive, survive to fledging age. Last years test of his parental skills has turned him into a very devoted, reliable parent. Almost every time I visited the nest, he was there. 

I can also share that the two remaining chicks on the Arboretum cam nest have both fledged successfully. We are still sad about the tragic collision that caused such severe injuries to the third chick that he had to be euthanized. I believe that these sorts of accidents happen more frequently that we realize. Once a chick fledges, they can get into so many different kinds of trouble away from the nest. We were lucky that the chick was found quickly, but the outcome was still a sad one. 

That came on the heels of another tragic situation that we could not fully understand. I found a chick on a nest with no adults attending to it. It was a nest where we thought we had a monitor watching, but sometimes a volunteer loses interest and does not inform us that they will no longer be visiting the nest. I watched for 3.5 hours and saw no adult. I sent another monitor, Trusty Barb,  the next day and she found an adult female perched nearby and the chick flapping its wings, preparing for fledge. So I thought perhaps something had happened to the male and the female was caring for the chick alone. That might explain her absence when I was there. We also met a lovely gentleman, Bob,  who walked his dog near this nest and he became quite interested in this chick. The three of us were there over a period of days and saw several adults, male and female, near or on the nest. The chick was seen eating once. But my own observations and questions to the other monitors determined that the adults there were not providing any parental care, not reliably feeding the chick. There were behavioral clues that they were not the parents of the chick but were just Ospreys looking for a territory. The chick seemed distressed by the presence of the male. By the time we realized all this, the chick seemed to be quite weak, and then it disappeared. It was probably predated. We were heartbroken to watch this little guy waiting for food that didnt come. We have no idea what may have happened to the parents, since they do not just abandon their offspring. I wish we had figured it out sooner so we could have rescued him, but the nest itself was problematic since it is on a transmission line in the water. It would have required both state and federal permits to “take” the chick and Xcel energy would have had to climb the structure to rescue the chick. We simply were not able to coordinate all this in time. That little one won our human hearts and moved us to tears. Sometimes we just cant save  a chick, and that brought the three of us a great deal of sadness. But, as I have said before, I am glad that I still care enough about each and every bird to shed a tear over the losses. And I am glad I have some people working with me whose hearts are so big that they also care enough to weep and to lose sleep over these precious birds that bring so much meaning into our lives. Thanks to Barb Ankrum and Bob Holly. 

we lost one at the Arb....

We have been going thru some sad losses these last few weeks, and sometimes it’s hard to write about it. I must share that we have lost one of the chicks from the Arboretum nest. Last Thursday August 9, I was there to check the nest in person for you guys since we can’t see much on the cam. I found another chick flying, one in the nest and the first to fledge was missing. Someone from the Arboretum came to tell me that the chick was found on the ground that morning and taken to The Raptor Center. I checked with them that day and was Informed that the chick was too unstable to examine. The same was still true the next day. When they tried to examine him, the least bit of stress caused labored breathing. They observed two droopy wings and today they discovered a broken coracoid and internal injuries. Both wing tips were cold. So unfortunately they had to euthanize him. Clearly these injuries were the result of some kind of impact. He was found beneath a power line and not too far from a tall fence. We are so deeply saddened by this accident. A very special thanks to Rhonda Andreen from the Arboretum for rescuing this young bird and taking him to TRC. There  is a photo of him on our Facebook page that she took that day, as disturbing as it is. We have had some other losses too and numerous tears have been shed. But we must focus on the chicks who have made it. I am sure the last chick at the Arboretum has probably fledged now and I will get out there to confirm that soon. Even after 25 years, I never get use to this, and it still brings me grief. May every other osprey chick be safe and successful in their flying adventures.