The first hatch!

 We have our first hatch!!!!! I pulled up and found both adults there, the female preening and staring down in to the nest. The male stood right next to her looking in to the nest as well. I often get my clue from the males behavior! They definitely get very interested when hatching begins! They both were so interested in what was in the nest cup. They don’t stare at eggs like that! Then the female rolled what must be unhatched eggs and then she very gently settled back into incubation/ brooding. The male stayed near. She was getting up frequently to peek below and then she finally really settled in. The adult behavior can tell the tale of what’s happening, but brooding looks just like incubating if you don’t watch long enough. So if you just pull up and take a quick look, it might not look like hatching has begun. I always wait, watch, see what the male does. I did not see a feeding but it was clear to me what was happening!

Male is on the right….so we have our first chicks! Woo hoo!

The hatching window opens….

 It’s interesting that the DYFI osprey project in the UK announced that today the window for hatching opens for them. Ironically, it also opens here in Minnesota! This is the first day that the first nest could start hatching. We are experiencing an explosive increase in new nests, with 24 documented so far. And it’s relatively early! Younger ospreys will be establishing new nests all summer. A few of these nests are actually not new, but were newly discovered or newly reported….but many of them are, in fact, “new” as I watched them being built. I cannot drive every road in 8 counties so we deeply appreciate when people report nests to us. Thanks to all the people who have reported nests this year, tho the large portion of them we did know about. I would rather have 100 nests reported that I know about than miss one we don’t know about, so don’t hesitate to report a nest, but PLEASE report it via email, ( osprey.mn@gmail.com) and not on this page. I wrote a post explaining the reasoning for this. 

We also REALLY need more monitors….but because the project has grown to be so large, I no longer have the time I used to have to train people….so we need people with a spotting scope, and with some birding experience, some basic knowledge about bird breeding behaviors who can commit to checking one or more nests a week and writing an email detailing your observations weekly. I do have written guidelines of what data we are trying to collect on each nest. Most people find it really educational and they quickly fall in love with “their” nests and find it deeply rewarding. It’s a whole new world. It does require patience and commitment. To me it’s quite meditative. 

Watching for hatching can be time consuming….one of the reasons I like monitors to watch carefully thru the long boring phase of incubation, is that the more familiar a monitor is with the normal behaviors during incubation, the easier it is to notice the subtle, and not so subtle, changes which occur when hatching is beginning. A quick look may not reveal those changes. We cannot see the tiny new chicks from the ground  until they are at least ten days old. So we rely on the subtle changes in the adults behaviors. They may become more restless….they may get up and look down more frequently than they did during incubation. They may wiggle and rock more. And the tell tale sign is when the male brings a fish for the female. During incubation, the female will take the fish and leave to eat on another perch, while the male takes over incubation. When hatching has occurred, the female will NOT leave with the fish…..she will begin taking small bites and leaning in to the nest cup to feed the unseen chicks. Feedings go quickly as those tiny crops fill up quickly. And then the adults will resettle….and brooding looks just like incubation. So it can take careful, and patient observation to catch the start of hatching. But it’s an exciting time for the experienced monitors! We tried to get incubation dates on most nests because it makes it much easier to know when to start watching for hatching. Most books say ospreys incubate for 35-43 days. In this area we found that most hatching begins on day 39. There can be some variation, especially if an egg is infertile or damaged. So we did our best to document the first day we saw them in incubating posture so we could count out 39 days and have a better idea of when to watch for hatching. I have been entering that data on a chart for the past few days. We have a LOT of nests, so it’s a big task wrangling the data! Some nests, because I couldn’t get there often enough, have no projected hatch date…..and some have a bigger window than I like. But we are doing the best we can. So that gives you some idea of how we approach monitoring all these nests. If you wish to participate….shoot me an email! 

And a million thanks to the long time monitors who have taken on more and more nests, and to the new ones who have committed to learning the ropes! It’s not only a chance to learn about ospreys….its also a way to learn  about yourself as you struggle with impatience, lack of focus, a distracted mind, the temptation to check your phone instead of watching the ospreys when it seems “boring”….to go check your nest when you dont feel like it or the weather isn’t great. It’s much like a meditation practice. And many find they NEED this time each week to be in nature, so set aside their daily concerns and be fully present and fully aware. Even I struggle sometimes…..and I learned early on when I was feeling impatient, to relax, let go of the thoughts, feel the sun on my back, feel the wind in my face, be present, listen to the vocalizations until you begin to understand them! Oh, that means she is hungry, oh that chirp is because they see another osprey who they don’t know, oh, that’s a bald eagle alarm, or that’s an alarm that means a human is too close. Notice what they are looking at, watch carefully as the female ,eaves with a fish to see where she goes and find her favorite perches. Notice what direction the male comes from with a fish. Notice if they have a full or empty crop. Notice the markings on the top of their head, unique to each bird ( tho subtle differences sometimes) so you can tell if it’s the male or female who is incubating just by knowing their head markings. There is so much to learn and observe. I love it. It can change who you are when you tune in to this degree. Well….you can tell how much it all means to me. So, now….off I go to check the very first nests which might start hatching today! And check new nests who had not yet laid eggs when I last visited! With such a large population, they are really spread out! Keeps me busy! 

Ospreys and Ravens!

 I let myself have a fun day today ….when I don’t try to get to a million nests, or answer a million emails. I spent all afternoon yesterday and several hours this morning doing data entry, ugh, to get caught up on osprey incubations dates. Our first hatches will begin in the next day or two. Then I got another Latte and I went back to watch the ravens and ospreys….spent over 3 hours there between those two nests. It’s so much fun to watch and figure out what is happening. First I looked at the raven nest on the cell tower….two of the three chicks has fledged. One was still wandering around the cell tower, flapping, hopping, poking at things….but not quite ready to fledge. He was mostly alone. The family was off somewhere. Then I went to look at the ospreys. At first I couldn’t see anyone in the nest, but finally got a view of the females head….barely visible. But I kept watching, waiting and finally the male showed up with a fish and I watched them swap positions and the female flew off with the fish. I finally found her eating perch and took some photos of her. Then I returned to the ravens….finally an adult came to the cell tower….the chick was still bopping around, lower on the tower. The adult came down once and put something in the chicks mouth. At one point there was another juvenile that came to the tower but didn’t stay for long. The hours just flew by as I watched them. The vocalizations were definitely raven and not crow. But when they flew off I searched for them and could not spot them in the trees, tho I could hear them. I kept watching for any interactions with the ospreys, and luckily there were none. I imagine by the time I get back again, the last raven chick will have fledged and I am guessing they won’t hang around the cell tower. I wonder if they will return next year. It was a fun way to spend a day….broadening my horizons, still curious…Twin Cities Metro Osprey and Raven Watch!

Ravens displaced the ospreys?

 Life is so interesting in the osprey world….and I am always so curious. Today I was checking nests and went to this cell tower where ospreys have nested sucessfully for several years. Earlier in the spring when I visited for the first time, they were not there! The nest was intact, but there were two crows ( ravens!)on the tower. I quickly found the ospreys had moved a short distance away and had built a new nest on a large transmission tower. I checked them, incubating, all is well. Then I got curious…..why did they move? They had successfully fledged chicks last year…..and the nest seemed fine. So I went back there to look again…..I looked from all angles. There was still a crow perched on top….but seriously, ospreys are not afraid of crows! There was nothing in the osprey nest. Hmmmmmm. I looked a little closer and started to notice movement….and I realized the crows are nesting on the cell tower, but not IN the ospreys nest, but below it in kind of a weird spot! There looked like there were three crows in there! The adult was perched above and then she finally did not down into the nest, and then flew out….but I was wondering g how those chicks were gonna fledge out of there! It was hard to get a photo cause they are black! I watched this situation for way too long….

I have seen crows nesting normally in a pine tree….and in all my years I have never seen anything like this. Maybe it’s common….i dont know. But apparently the crows scared the ospreys off!
First photo is the new osprey neat and then is the photo of the cell tower, with the osprey nest visible and the crow nest below it is circled in red. I notice so many interesting things…..

I have been corrected! It’s a raven not a crow! I wondered about that big beak!!!! Ain’t life interesting?

Polygynous males…

A few weeks ago I posted about following a male as he flew away from his nest, because he was not headed to his usual fishing spot. He headed to a cell tower to copulate with another female! Well, I have caught him doing it again….and there is no nest on that cell tower. It seems to just be their rendezvous site. I am not sure where she goes and what she does the rest of the time. And just when I was thinking negative thoughts about this male, I caught him feeding his #1 female as she incubated….very attentive. Caring for his mate is also a strong instinct. It’s an investment in those eggs, those chicks. 

We also have another female that’s in a pickle. I told you about her last year. Two years ago her mate disappeared mid season when she already had chicks that were at least a few weeks old. He must have met some tragic fate and she managed to finish raising the chicks alone. Last year she returned and waited for a new male to show up. Unfortunately, the male that showed up was a banded male from a nest down the road, where he had another female. He stayed with our girl just until she layed eggs and then he abandoned her. His mate at the other nest laid eggs much later and he remained with her. We watched our girl as she incubated alone….leaving for five minutes to catch a fish and return to eat it quickly on the nest edge before she resumed incubation.  Most females in this situation tend to abandon eggs to care for themselves. But our girl hung in there and hatched two beautiful chicks on her own! She would leave them alone for short periods to go get food for them. Of course as they grow, they need more and more food…and sadly one of them didn’t make it. But she successfully fledged one chick, which is rather miraculous! She did it all alone. Ironically his other nest failed, and in spite of getting his full attention, those chicks did not survive. 

We had hoped for a new mate and better situation for our girl this year. It’s been very frustrating to watch the whole scenario repeat itself this year. The same male was there, copulating with her, even bringing sticks….until she laid eggs. Now we are only seeing her incubating alone. He is at his other nest with his other mate, who is now incubating as well. he did show up briefly today when several other males were flying around, he came to chase them off, not to care for the female. He sees it as his territory.

If some of you have watched the Hellgate Osprey Cam  in Montana, you may be familiar with Iris who faced the same scenario, year after year…..when Louis, her former mate, kept coming back from his new nest and new mate, to copulate with Iris. although the outcome was different there since every time Iris would leave her eggs to feed herself, crows would take her eggs. So her nest failed every year. So it’s miraculous that our female pulled it off alone and fledged one chick. Will she be able to do it again? And how many years will this go on….Iris went thru this cycle at least five times….wasting precious breeding years. I hate to admit it, but I hope this male doesnt return next year….because as long as the situation remains the same, I fear her fate will repeat. This other male now thinks this is his territory too. She deserves better. Will she ever happen to find a new mate who will fight for her and the territory and chase the other male away? Iris has herself a new mate and they are incubating eggs now. That gives us hope that our girl will be able to break the curse next year. In the meantime, we will see how this year goes for her. She is an amazing osprey with awesome fortitude. We must refrain from anthropomorphizing and projecting human morality upon ospreys. These polygynous males are just following their  instincts. The two driving forces for ospreys are surviving and reproducing….so when presented with the opportunity to spread his DNA, he takes it. It was ironic that the nest he gave his attention to ended up failing and the one he abandoned, was successful. And raising chicks alone is our girls normal now…..she knows how to do it. We are rooting for her.

Polygyny is something we have observed many times over the years. One amazing male had two nests, three years  in a row, and he successfully fledged 3 chicks at each nest for two of those years. He fed six chicks and two females! Most of the time one nest fails in this kind of situation, but he did nothing but fish…and he pulled it off. Of course those females had to pitch in too when the chicks got older and needed more food. 

There is actually a lot more I could say about these behaviors….but maybe we will return to this to this topic again later! There are a lot of interesting aspects to it.

Wayzata nest on highway sign….

 For all the people contacting me about the nest on the Highway sign in Wayzata…..yes we knew about it. We watched those ospreys build the nest last summer…tho they didn’t lay eggs. The nest was removed over the winter. When the ospreys returned this spring, they rebuilt a large nest and it was removed again. The DOT put a cone and some flags up there to deter them, but apparently the people in power do not understand that ospreys are very philopatric…..very loyal to their nest site. They are stubborn. So the ospreys rebuilt their nest AGAIN. I caught the male perched on top of the cone they installed to scare them away. They laid eggs on April 29…..so now they are protected under federal law as well as state law. Our attempts to communicate with the DNR earlier were ignored. We are watching all known nests in 8 counties…..and I am often frustrated because I know a lot about osprey behavior. I see what is going in the metro. Our population is exploding. We have found 21 new nests already this year. A few were not new, but we didn’t know about them so thanks to everyone who has reported their observations to me. It is deeply appreciated. I have also seen sad mistakes made, when the DNR issued permits for a nest removal and someone built a new nest, set a new nestpole….all admirable and appreciated efforts…but because they didn’t consult with someone who has knowledge about ospreys, poles were placed too close to tall trees, which may eventually result in the osprey returning to the lightpoles which created problems. Nest boxes were built wrong, with solid wood bottoms that provide no drainage, no way for the nest to breath. Chicks have died uneccessarily in a heavy rain In the past in similar situations. I do my best, am happy to share my knowledge, I even sometimes have a nestbox to donate.

We are trying to continue to monitor all known nests but we sure need help, if anyone wants to volunteer to help monitor these nests. And with the cost of gas, I also need financial support.

If anyone has questions or concerns, or sees a new nest being built, wants to volunteer, or needs advice about where to place a new nest or how to build a new nestbox, I have 33 years of experience with all this…please contact me…osprey.mn@

Egg #3 at the Arb!

 Egg number three has arrived at the Arboretum! Hard to determine exactly when, but looks like between 3:00-4:00 pm. on May 3!