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!
Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch
Please report new Osprey nests to Vanessa Greene at Osprey.mn@gmail.com Volunteer to monitor a nest!

Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Losses and thanks!
Sunday, June 29, 2025
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!
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….
Thursday, June 26, 2025
June 18 at the Arboretum cam nest…saying goodbye ….
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.
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.
Monday, June 16, 2025
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.