Oldest pair….

 This, my friends, is our oldest pair….both are 19 years old! They have been together for ten years…..both had previous nests / mates before they got together. Both are banded and they hatched in the opposite sides of the metro from each other. What good fortune that they found each other! They are always among the first birds back in the spring, among the first to lay eggs and hatch and among the first chicks to fledge. You can practically set your watch by them! They are so fun to watch…they work so well together. This male is super devoted, so there he was today standing right next to his mate, as they watched over their brood. They hatched about ten days ago and today I was finally able to count the chicks! THREE!!!! What cutie patooties. I could not for the life of me get a photo tho….with the heatwaves, and sun and tiny heads that rarely pop up at the same time…..so the official count doesn’t come until you see ALL of them up at once. But I did see them! They are looking bigger than I expected….so the incubation and hatch date may have been off by a day or two. But it was such a joy to see them and welcome them and watch their amazing parents, side by side, gazing at their offspring. These are the moments I live for. I am sure that I either banded the male, or held him as he recieved his band as a nestling. The female was likely banded by someone else on the other side of the metro….tho I might have been present.

I have watched these birds for so many years, and know so much about them…..it’s a feeling I can’t explain or express.

They are like my family.

OMG my heart….

 OMG….my heart! I visited the female who is raising chicks alone today….she has THREE beautiful bobble heads….and I was overwhelmed with love and anxiety. How will she feed three chicks alone….and get enough food herself? She left for about 7 minutes to get a fish….and during that time I saw one little head pop up briefly….but when she came back with a fish at first I saw two heads and then OMG three…. Wow. I was mesmerized watching them. It was so damn hard to move on to other nests….

So this post will just be about her. That males other nest has not hatched yet….
Why do these pictures make me cry? So many big feelings….
I love what I do, I love these birds, I love THIS osprey in particular, and I am so lucky to be skilled enough to even know what’s going on each nest.. how many people would even know her story without following that male, reading bands, watching her so closely. I have been challenged lately by trying to explain what is going on to many of the volunteers….somehow I notice more….and I can’t figure out why. I understand behaviors after all these years….and I am patient, and I am still deeply curious about what is happening, so I often add up behaviors differently, I come to different conclusions, I have a good scope….I ran into a lot of new people today and shared a lot of stories…I LOVE teaching people about ospreys!
I literally feel so much in my chest right now looking at these photos and thinking about this female and all she has faced, endured, and is up against in the coming days and weeks. On two different nests in my 33 years of studying them, ( only two) I have seen an unrelated male bring fish to a nest where he was NOT the father. I remember talking to my mentor Sergej about this and he explained to me it is an unusual behavior, but it is a way for a male to secure a territory. He gets a territory and a female….but he has to bring food to chicks that do not carry his DNA. It’s also unusual for a female to allow an unrelated male anywhere near her nest.…but if he has a fish….and she is desperate, well maybe. Dare I hope for this? I do have a monitor, Pat, who witnessed this several years ago on a nest she was monitoring. My goodness we witnessed a lot and learned so much as we both put in many extra hours observing and documenting this unusual behavior. ( too long a story and too much to write now).
I also witnessed an unrelated male bring fish to a nest many years ago, in the beginning of my researching days…..after a male was hit by a car and killed when the female had young chicks. He never actually fed the chicks or brought fish directly to them, but he brought fish to the female, as a courtship behavior, which allowed her and her chicks to survive….and he became the territorial male at that for many years after that.
Or maybe the actual dad’s other nest will fail….and he will bring fish to this nest?
I am hoping for something miraculous to happen for this female and her awesome little family. Think about her, incubating alone for 39 days, leaving to feed herself without being gone too long. She had a perfect success to hatch three chicks. OMG my heart.

Three littles….

 I was out and about today….and I came across a pair of ospreys perched in a tree. No known nest nearby. This is a symptom of this exploding population. Are they going to build a nest there? In a tree? I will keep checking this spot.

Believe it or not, we still have pairs that have not laid eggs….they are almost out of time. What is the problem? I remember my mentor Sergej, telling me that sometimes they don’t lay eggs for reasons we don’t fully understand. Could this be a response to population density?

I spent more time at the new nest in a tree…..the private property owners who have allowed me to be on their property to watch this nest have been SO gracious. They have sent out text messages to their neighbors so people know what I am doing. They seem quite excited about it all. And they have been very complimentary about me….which was very nice given the beating I have taken from someone who is struggling thru some kind of darkness. As I walked away I heard the homeowner say, “she is amazing”. A much needed boost. I done a fair amount of osprey educating and people find it fascinating. The male at this nest is SO attentive…..so often standing guard right next to the female. This is a special little neighborhood with a warm, welcoming feel. The ospreys lead me to some great people sometimes!

Then I made my way to some nests I hadn’t gotten to in a while….so many detours, so hard to get to some nests. But I found a couple more that were hatched! And at one I was able to actually see three chicks being fed. First just one bigger chick was visible and then another and when I saw the third, I yelled out loud ” THREE”…..people must think I am crazy. I tried so hard to get a decent photo of those chicks but the heatwaves were so bad and the phone just wouldn’t/ couldn’t focus….but I am including a crummy photo….

Not scared….

 I thought this photo might bring a chuckle! People put up fake owls thinking it will scare ospreys away. It cracks me up….humans are so dumb that they don’t realize that ospreys would not survive all that they do, including long distance migrations, if they couldnt tell the difference between a real owl and a fake plastic one. And then they are baffled about why it didnt work!

Nests in trees!

 We now have two known nests in trees! It’s unusual in this reintroduced population who have grown up on man made structures! I actually worry more about these nests than all those on man made structures….will they withstand strong storms? We will see….

The most amazing osprey…

 A few posts ago I spoke about polygynous males. I shared the story of the female who had to incubate and raise chicks alone last year after the neighboring male fertilized her eggs and then disappeared. She was facing the same fate this year. We she made it thru incubation alone. And today I went to check her briefly before I visited a bunch of other nests. Well as soon as I arrived I saw that she was looking down a lot…see first photos…and my instincts said they have hatched….but I always need proof, especially in this situation that I am so interested in. So I waited for three hours….just taking notes, watching closely…..and finally she stood up, backed up slowly and flew off. She came back in THREE minutes with a small crappie and started feeding chicks! She was also wolfing down food herself…..she was so hungry. It seems miraculous that she is able to pull this off. I almost cried. When I drove away I was screaming out loud…”You are the very best osprey in the whole world! Osprey of the year…no, osprey of the decade! You should be famous!!!”

Think about her sitting on those eggs all the time for 39 days…no break, no help. I hope they all survive, but it gets harder and harder for her to provide enough food as they get bigger. But we will hope for easy fishing, good weather, maybe even a knight in shining armor to bring some fish. 

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!