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.
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