The new male…

I spent the entire day today and a few hours yesterday  at the nest of the single female who was rising a chick alone…..until recently when an unbanded male showed up. I have been so busy lately I have not gotten back to that nest in a little while. The monitor watching that nest was reporting seeing the female and chick on several occasions. When I was  there  yesterday I saw only the male and the chick. I wondered why I see that male often and she never has…..and then I realized that she probably had seen him and misidentified him, thinking any adult there would be Mom. That Mom has a very light breast for a female so discerning the difference between the male and female might be a challenge. I could see the difference. She has a silver band, and he doesn’t….(and I always notice bands) and I am familiar with her markings and when I first saw the male I made note, and took photos, of his markings.  

Anyway when I was there yesterday for almost 2 hours, I did not see the female at all. The male was there and he did deliver a fish to the chick. Photos below. This is amazing, since he has no biological incentive to feed that chick. But it caused me to worry so I returned today and stayed all day. It appears that Mom is gone. I hope nothing terrible happened. It’s hard to understand why she would abandon her chick at this point. But maybe her female instincts were telling her it’s time to head south….and she had some kind of sense that this male would feed the chick? 

This morning I found no one there for the first 90 min. Then at 9:45 the male showed up with a big fish. But the chick wasn’t there. He waited. He had eaten the head but he did not eat the rest of the fish. After another hour the chick came in screaming and whining the whole way to the nest. The male immediately came to the nest with the fish and there was a fury of flapping wings and chaos and then the  male flew off. The chick flew a short loop with her fish and then went back to the nest to eat. She ate for quite a while and then just dropped the fish and walked around the nest a bit before she flew off towards the lake. 

I went searching. I finally spotted her in a tree. As I sat there and watched her  she took off and did some loops, foot dragging in the water, and then a few actual water starts! She is practicing! Then she went to a tree.  Then she flew off to a part of the lake I couldn’t see. It was now noon so I had to find a bathroom and get something to eat. I was gone for 25 min. When I got back, the male was on the lights again, with no fish. He stayed for an hour and then he departed. I went searching for the chick and found her in a tree. I watched her there for a long time. She was clearly getting hungry and she went back to the nest and got the dried up remains of the fish she had left there three hours earlier. She flew off and I lost her. As I was searching for her, the male came back with a big flopping fish! Damn it….the chick just left with the dried up leftovers and here he is with food. He waited for about 15 minutes and then he ate the fish. Dang. I could not locate the chick. Just as he finished the fish, the chick arrived on the nest hollering for food. I am not kidding…..these two are out of sync. At 3:15 the male left….and I was hoping he would be back soon with a fish….but an hour later, the chick gave up and flew off….I looked for her but then decided after 8 hours of watching them I needed to go home. The chick had an empty crop and I hope he returns this evening with food. But he doesn’t have to. This is not his chick. Why is he doing this when the female isn’t even around to impress? Instinct? Many males wouldn’t do this, and  he could stop at anytime. This chick is alive because of this male. I am baffled why the female has disappeared. Maybe she is still around, but taking time to prepare for her own migration. But most of the time when a female ends up as a single parent, she plays the males role and stays to feed chicks until they depart. But maybe this males presence is triggering her to act in a more typical pattern for a female. I just dont know. But my fascination and curiosity makes me hang out and watch….because I am driven to understand these birds, their behaviors. Will she survive without her mom? I have concluded after 33 years that most chicks need about a month post fledge of their parents food support before  they begin to disperse and care for themselves….some take longer, and some males take less time. This is a female chick. She fledged about 3 weeks ago. Will this male hang in there and feed her for another week? Well, you know me, I want to camp out there and watch. But I have SO many other nests to check. But I probably will be back there in the next day or two…..( who am I kidding…..it will probably be tomorrow).

Unique

 Just an interesting look at an osprey…..for those of you who have looked at many osprey’s you know that females often have what we call a “necklace”….spots on the upper breast. And males often have a whiter breast….sometimes completely white, and some have some spots on the upper breast. And there are ospreys whose markings are confusing. I currently have a female with a very white breast, and also we have a male with quite a few spots….if you saw him alone you might say “female”. But I was watching this adult today….and I have never seen another osprey quite like it. Not actually sure which sex it is but I think male…..but look at those spots way down on his belly, between his legs! It looks like a red tail hawk’s belly band! Is this his Halloween costume? This ospreys is nesting on a very high transmission tower so I never got a really close look before today….the chick fledged and this adult was hanging out close to the chick. Always interesting stuff to notice about these birds.

Tragedy

 So much is going on every day that it’s hard to keep up with writing posts to share things with the readers. Fledging is a very challenging time for the ospreys and those of us watching over them. Many times watching a newly fledged chick can be exhilarating , and brings a joyful WOO HOO when it gets back to the nest safely. But sometimes, even many days after that first flight, tragedies can occur. About ten days ago this chick was seen wedged into the framework of the light that its nest was on. The Long Lake fire dept and a volunteer from The Raptor Center managed to rescue this chick and get him to TRC for medical care. Sadly, the chick had to be euthanized a few days ago. This is the same nest where I posted about the fence sitter a few weeks ago…..both chicks had been fine after their first few flights until this happened. Who knows how it got itself into this predicament. And I have not been able to determine yet if this was the fence sitter or the sibling. Every loss breaks my heart. Many thanks to Michael who rescued this chick and took the photos….and to the Long Lake fire dept for getting him up there, as well as The Raptor Center for their efforts to save this juvenile.

The good news is that thru this tragic situation I was able to connect with Michael who will be one of our new volunteer monitors!

Distressing issue….

 I have so many stories to tell, so many experiences to share…I can never get around to them all. Here is one more for you. This is a nest that popped up this year on a power pole near a big power plant. In those early days of watching them I thought….my that female has such unusual markings…..such a dark face. And then her mate landed next to her and I thought, how odd….he has very dark markings too! Then suddenly my brain exploded and I understood….this power plant processes coal. This birds are covered in coal dust. I was horrified. If this is what their faces look like, what is happening to their lungs? This coal dust does not wash off in the rain or when they bathe. I have been deeply worried about the two chicks…..but I am relieved to report that they both fledged successfully. So I am hoping they will begin to spend time further away from the coal piles, in safer surroundings. The chicks don’t look as bad as the adults. I hope the power plant removes this nest and this pair will find a better place to nest next year….tho I won’t recognize them probably!

Missing old friend….

 I had a very exciting morning today….there is a lovely banded male who nested on a cell tower for the past five years, and sadly his nest was removed and the tower was altered so he could not rebuild there this year. I searched for him and found him a short distance away in other cell tower. He and his mate were there dropping a few sticks. When I visited again, no real progress had been made and the female was gone. I watched the male just sitting there. The next time I visited, there were no ospreys at all. I searched for him at least three times this summer to no avail. I was very fond of this banded male….he also has a brother who is nesting about 8-10 miles away. I knew he had to be around and I also know that ospreys are very philopatric….loyal to their nesting territories. As I headed out this morning I thought, I will do one more search, extending a bit further south. I checked cell towers, transmission towers, a previous nest site of his…and found nothing. I went back to the cell tower where I last saw him…no one there. As I was driving away I saw an osprey flying across the road with a stick….I quickly turned around and got myself focused on the cell tower as he landed….IT WAS HIM! I was so happy! He is alone, but now he is doing some work on building a nest on that cell tower. I don’t know why he didn’t do it earlier….but I wonder if they nested somewhere else and failed. I just don’t know….but finding him again made me very happy. I will recheck to see how the nest is going and I hope his female comes back too. He is a great parent who has fledged chicks every year except this one. It’s funny how attached you can get to these banded birds when you watch them year after year. Gosh, that made my day….

Confirming successful fledging….

 Crazy busy weekend….frantically trying to gather data on successful fledging….that means visiting nests and watching for a while to try to account for all chicks right after fledge. It’s not easy, it can be time consuming. Many people don’t understand the value of this info….it determines if a nest is successful or not, it also determines the number of chicks that we record for the overall totals. My mentor, Sergej Postupalsky, wrote a paper about terms and methodology that is still very much a guiding light for me. It’s important that we discern the various causes for failure and what constitutes success. I had a boss that wanted us to consider the number of chicks we banded at 4.5-5 weeks of age as the final number. Sergej strongly disagreed with that since at that age the chicks are only about half way thru their development….and many won’t fledge until they are close to 8 weeks old. There are a lot of losses in those weeks, so an earlier number is falsely exaggerated, and slants the data. So I try very hard to get a number of chicks right before fledging age….and then confirm the number of chicks that we know fledged successfully. That does not mean they flew away….since osprey chicks are dependent upon their parents for food for several weeks or a month post fledge. So we are looking for chicks that have flown, landed safely somewhere and are returning to the nest to be fed. This is not easy. I am working very, VERY hard to get this data. Sometimes I just don’t get back soon enough after fledge to find them all and see that they are being fed. With well over 200 nests now, it’s becoming an impossible task without more help.

But I am making the rounds and doing my best. I visited two nests yesterday where I had seen no chicks on the nest, which worried me…..I could not find them anywhere. And upon this return visit…Boom! One by one they returned to the nest!! Some photos below of those nests with three chicks each. I also went to another nest where I had seen all three fledged last week and sadly, the nest was empty….but I thought, it’s ok. Then I heard this very loud foodbegging….and I looked up and a chick was right above my car! I slowly mover around to take a photo….but my scope almost couldnt zoom out enough to fit her in the frame….she was so close! And so tolerant. I laughed……food begging with a fish in her talons!

I call these gatherings of all chicks “the morning meeting” ….and it got a bit testy at the first one!

What a beauty….

 After the rain today I did step out to visit a few nests…

It’s been so frustrating, with so many nests to check, when I visit and the chicks are getting close to fledge…..and then I return 9 days later and they are gone. I cant find a single one of the family. I searched and waited….even found a new nest, or start of a nest, or maybe something this pair had started previously. I didn’t hear any chicks, tho I finally found the male on another celltower. I will have to try again, and sometimes I have to accept that with this many nests, some will fall thru the cracks and I won’t have definite final outcomes. I know those chicks made it to fledging age. I just can’t get back to them soon enough. We are also searching for missing chicks post fledge on many nests….and sadly, I found another dead chick in a nest.

I also visited a nest that had three chicks but all of them disappeared much earlier in the season. I don’t know the cause, but I suspect predation. Since then I had not seen the adults and that worried me…but yesterday I found them both perched side by side , each eating a fish. The male is banded. It was a relief to know that they are both ok.

So after a disappointing few days…I went to another nest that I had been to 9 days earlier. That solo chick was starting to hop and flap then, and today when I arrived there, I could not find a single osprey. I searched all around the area, and then just sat there waiting….hoping….and when I looked up from my field book….this stunningly beautiful chick was perched on a nearby celltower. I was so happy to see him. Somehow, when you watch chicks in a nest, you don’t always see all of them, you don’t notice all the spectacular markings….and when they have fledged and are perching in the open….boy it can take my breath away! I saw no adults, but I am sure his dad is around. But some females are starting their trips to the spa….as they begin to build up their strength, their muscle mass, their hunting skills, to prepare for the big trip ahead. On a nest with a single chick, this leaves the chick alone a lot. It often seems that on larger brood nests, the chicks fly around together, they have someone to play with, someone to compete with. But on the other hand, single chicks get all the food! Anyway, this nest is one of my favorites….tho we lost the long time banded male several years ago. The new male has been a devoted mate and Dad. I think it’s the same female, tho she is unbanded. So it lifted me up to see this spectacular male chick, with a totally white breast, perched up there in the late afternoon light. What a beauty. He made my day!