Boy this cold windy weather seems to be slowing down migrating ospreys. Some of us were out there yesterday in the 40 mph winds and snow, checking nests and it was miserable. But we have a very short window between when the ospreys return and when they begin laying eggs and incubating. I am trying my hardest to get bands read before incubation when we might have to wait for many many hours for an osprey to stand up and reveal its legs. I deeply appreciate the volunteers who are helping me with this huge task. Some ospreys have been slow to return, probably due to the strong north winds. We still have some empty nests and are missing some of our older, experienced banded birds. I dont know if we should start grieving their loss, or just be patient. I was at one nest yesterday that in the past had a banded male who was often among the early returns. The nest has been empty, empty, empty. The nest was also among the 13 so far that were removed. Finally yesterday there were some new sticks up there! And I located the ospreys and was able to read the band on the male! Yeah the same, dependable guy. Quite late, but beginning the work of rebuilding his nest! I know its not fun for volunteers to be out there when its 35 degrees and the wind is blowing 40-50 mph….but this is part of the committment. I am trying to get around to all the nests, but reading bands takes time…..so I want to express my gratitude to those volunteers who are excited to see their winged friends and who are out there helping with this huge task in spite of imperfect conditions. You know who you are! I treasure you! These people are always rewarded by getting to observe interesting behaviors…..I love the early days. So we do still need more volunteers to help us out, if you have a scope, some birding experience and a willingness to commit 15-30 min a week to each assigned nest. We have a list of behaviors we are trying to document on each nest to guide the monitors. Our data has been consistantly collected for 29 years and the results are always posted online so the public can see what we are doing and learn about how the osprey population is doing in the metro area. This will be a particularly important year as we face the avian flu, and we dont know how this will impact osprey production. If you want to help….email me at osprey.mn@gmail.com
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