Another tragedy …..

 This week just gets more challenging….got a message this morning about a dead osprey found on the ground. So I went running and sat for many hours watching and trying to figure out what was going on. All was well on this nest 8 days ago. Now, there was what appeared to be a dead male not all that far from the nest. He was badly decomposed, but unbanded. Clearly this death did not occur in the past day or two. I watched the female on the nest….food begging constantly as two other males seemed to be competing for the territory. Two chicks were gone and one remained. She was allowing one male to land on the nest, and he occasionally chased off the other male. But the two males also sat near each other in the same tree for a long time. The female left to get food and was gone for an hour, while the poor chick sat in the rain. She finally returned and did have a fish, tho she had eaten the head, and fed the chick. Then one of the males tried to land on the nest, the other was right behind him and said, SCRAM! And the second male had a fish!

Small, but still….a good sign. The female grabbed it….and she and the chick ate again….and by this time that chick had a HUGE crop. But still, the female is stressed and two chicks are gone. Did they starve because she couldn’t provide enough food? Did something else happen? Sometimes it’s hard to find the answers….but once again it appears that some males be more open to sort of helping a damsel in distress, as an investment in the future.…to get a mate and a territory that is seen as desirable. I will watch as often as I can, and gather as much info as possible. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome here. Now I am torn between two nests where there is a lot of drama. The endless rain makes monitoring challenging….hard to count chicks heads when the Moms are sheltering them from the rain. Think good thoughts….after the tears.