September 27

 Today I went back for another visit with the ospreys in the last post. I quickly spotted the Dad across the lake ( first photo) with a big fish. But I heard no food begging from the juvenile. I watched and kept hiking around the lake to get a little closer….and closer….and I scanned all the usual perches but did not see or hear the youngster. Very quiet, the lake was like glass….i heard squirrels rustling thru the dry leaves. Dad was eating a few bites, and then stopping, listening, scanning the area in all directions….then a few more bites and he would stop again and look for his offspring. He searched the sky above too. Finally he flew off, back towards the nest. So I followed him and found him perched on some ballfield lights…..still looking in all directions. He had half the fish in his talons, but he was just waiting, in case she showed up hungry. These males are often so devoted to their chicks, and we believe this one is a parent for the first time. I told him what a great job he had done….I was so touched by his care for this chick, until the very end…tho his nest building skills could use some work!!!! Ha ha! We hope that he and his mate both survive and return for another year at this site.

I savor these final days and hours I get to spend with them….no longer having to rush off to check 15 other nests…just relaxing with them, watching listening and feeling the love. I never tire of spending time with them….It remains a priority until I can no longer find any ospreys. They are so magnificent and even tho it’s been a very tough year, with many heartbreaking losses, in these final moments, all I can feel is the love. What a privilege it is so share a bit of their lives as I do.

September 25!

 I just had to go out looking again today…September 25, and I spent a joyful 2.5 hours watching this lovely chick and her Dad. I didn’t get any photos of him as he was moving around a lot. This sweet juvenile was following him, perching nearby and hollering for food. Dad disappeared for a while and this chick did try to catch a fish! She was gazing into the water, went plunging in and got out of the lake… without a fish, but it was a great water start! She is working on her skills! She was flying between the nest and the nearby lake, and I loved the sound of her crying all the way!

Most of our friends are gone now, so it was a total pleasure to hang out with this pair on this lovely fall day! Oh how I will miss them!

Concerning update…

 It’s become so difficult to write these updates recently. So many sad outcomes. Where do I begin, what do I say? 

I have many situations I could write about. I hinted at them in previous posts.

But the latest sad situation is at the Arboretum cam nest. The banded male, MS was last seen last Monday (8/26) right before a storm came thru. We do not know what happened to him. He was never seen again. The mom was seen that morning, and she too was never seen again. Females are the first to leave on migration so perhaps she is on her way to her wintering grounds. Males do not begin their migration when there is still a juvenile depending upon them for food. The chick was seen on the nest for a few days after dad’s disappearance but on Thursday Aug 29 the chick appeared to have some large bird chasing it. He landed on the nest then almost rolled off the edge of the nest as if he was being dive-bombed and we could see him fly off, followed by a large dark shadow on the ground. The chick was never seen again. I have searched for him to no avail. A new unbanded male has been hanging around on the nest since the territorial male, MS, disappeared. I have witnessed a bald eagle chasing him repeatedly as I searched for the chick and MS. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that the chick may have been killed by an eagle.  I wonder if MS met the same fate, or was he injured in the storm? It wasn’t that bad a storm and ospreys are quite good at surviving bad weather, but I just dont know. So many questions. What we know for a fact is the male has not been seen since Monday in the late afternoon and the chick has not been seen since Thursday morning. Typically a male will stay around and defend his territory and protect his offspring, but he hasn’t. And a juvenile will return to the nest to be fed for up to 4 weeks post fledge. Sometimes they may be fed at a different location, and some will venture forth and begin to try fishing on their own. So far, all searching has been unproductive.  I cannot see or hear a juvenile asking for food. I have looked all around the area and surrounding lakes. The sudden disappearance is unusual, and the final video of the chick is disturbing. And the Dad would not leave his territory before the offspring. Adult males are typically the last of the family to begin their migration, staying until the chicks are no longer asking for food, and have begun their migration. 

And if the territorial male, MS, were still around, he would not be allowing the new unbanded male to remain on the nest as much as he has. 

This is all unsettling. We have so few facts, but we know that three  ospreys are missing for sure. The female may be fine and on her way south as many females are now. But the sudden absense of the territorial male and the beautiful chick is cause for concern. And the presence of a new male is a signal that this is now an undefended territory. Now the cam is down or off so we cannot monitor events on the nest. Since it’s been a holiday weekend, all the gates were locked so I could not look near the nest for any injured birds or bodies / clues. I have been looking for the chick and Dad out side the fences, and listening for them, but I do all this with a deep pit in my stomach. I will expand my search area today. And this is just one of many situations of concern, just one place where I have spent so much time searching, watching, listening. More posts to come.

Thanks to Sunnie Day, a long time, very experienced osprey monitor in another state for the video and tips about these missing ospreys. I had been busy searching for missing ospreys in the other side of the metro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIA4eBLBv3E

 

Updates….and apologies

 Yeah yeah yeah….another apology for not posting anything sooner. It’s been a wild and challenging year here. We have been watching an unprecedented number of nests with a single parent. And sometimes, one adult cannot provide enough for a large family. We are seeing a very high mortality rate among chicks and adults. There may be multiple reasons for this….but heavy rains have resulted in poor water quality in some places. Lots of algae, sediment, lily pads….which makes it hard for ospreys to fish. I have spent so much time visiting and revisiting nests to count chicks, search for missing chicks and adults. Two of my favorite banded males have disappeared. So I reached out to The Raptor Center today to check on a chick I brought in earlier. Unfortunately  they  have already released that chick and another one. I like to be there to watch over them post release to see if they are being fed. Now it will be difficult to single them out from other chicks in the area. I would have made different choices about where to release them based on my  observations over 30 years. But they also gave me a list of 13 ospreys ( 6 adults and 7 juveniles) that have come in this summer from my study area and this is very, very sad….but helpful to our data regarding outcomes. Me and several of my monitors have devoted significant time to searching for these missing adults and juveniles….and this does help us fill in some holes. Not the way we want to, but at least we have fewer questions and can stop looking. However we still have many missing birds that they did not receive. So some mysteries remain. Honestly, it kind of took the wind out of me today to see that list. They say they are admitting a record number of birds. This is consistant with what we are seeing too. 

We watch these nests so carefully and we know when something is going wrong, birds are missing….but we can’t always find them or rescue them. There are still a lot of people who don’t find value in what we do, who don’t believe what we tell them about their nests. Some people still believe that a chick can fly off the nest for the first time and magically take care of itself and not return to the nest to be fed. We know that isn’t true. If they don’t return to be fed, something unfortunate  has happened. Ospreys are not precocial like ducks….able to feed themselves shortly after hatching. They are altricial, which means they depend upon parents for a long period after hatching, and even after fledging. I have been watching chick development for 30 years and I have a pretty good sense of when something has gone wrong…and when it hasnt! I got an email about a chick in a nest that an observer thought was undersized and had been left behind and needed rescue. I had been watching that nest but none the less, I went to recheck it. Chick actually had fledged and was flying and landing nearby…and it was the same size as Dad, and was being well fed. ( very full crop)  Just a late hatch and therefore a late fledger. And since it is a female, it was hanging out on the nest a lot, waiting for food to be delivered. All normal behaviors. So we keep doing what we do….we know when to be concerned, and when not to. We grieve over the losses, because every bird matters. And we celebrate the nests where three beautiful chicks have fledged successfully. I have been lucky to watch some adults out fishing, some chicks trying to practice their water starts….there are a LOT of skills to develope before they are independent. I will search for the chicks that were released in hopes that I can spot them being fed. It’s very hard for a chick to spend a month in rehab during such an important phase of their life, when they should be learning so many important skills while their parents are still feeding them. I will do what I can to find them and to learn more about how these young birds fare when released post rehab. Its much easier for adults. It is still fun to see these beautiful young birds perched near their nests….fledged!

Lil Arb!

 Lil Arb fledged this morning ( 8/6) about 6:42! And returned about 8:12! A successful fledge!

Fledging?????

 Oh my SO much happening on so many nests….but today I wanted to mention that the window for fledging opens today for the Arboretum Cam chick. We don’t know for sure if this is the first hatched chick, or the 2nd or 3rd. But the average fledging date has been reached today if this is the first chick. I always compare fledging to when a human child walks….it can vary a lot. But this is when we start watching more carefully for signs of fledging. Many thought this chick wouldn’t make it after the sad start and losses we observed earlier….but this chick has done well and made it to this milestone. Fledging is a delicate time and we certainly hope for a successful, uneventful fledge for this one. So I will be watching when I can….tho I am spread so thin, with so many tragedies on so many nests. We have never had so many single parent nests….and I dont know what has happened to so many males that have not been seen recently. Females are leaving chicks alone for long periods  to hunt. The chick mortality rate is high. Stay tuned….and think a good thought for the Arb chick!

Chicks as big as adults!

 A super busy weekend of checking nests….chicks are fledging all over the place now. I got this photo of a mother and chick and thought it might help people who are having some difficulty differentiating between adult and juvenile when the young ones are as big as adults! You can easily discern the difference in their plumage here….with adults having solid dark feathers on their backs and wings, and the juveniles have a white tip on every dark feather which serves as camouflage in the nest. They have an easily observed mottled appearance. As they age, these white tips begin to wear away and are less noticeable as they approach migration. You can also see here the difference in color of the eyes. Adults have a bright yellow eye, and the youngsters have a rusty red, or orange eye that begins to fade to a rosy gold color. Hope that helps some people to discern the differences!