Another 12 hour day in the field. I left home at 5:45 to check a bunch of nests for fledging before it got too hot. That was the plan anyway. I had heard from one of the monitors that her nest had a chick doing a lot of flapping and getting some loft. I know that usually means they might fledge in a day or two. She was unable to revisit today, so I went to check on those chicks. I stopped at a few other nests along the way.
When I got there, three chicks were still there….two in the nest and one on the horizontal perch. I wondered if he flew out there or inched his way out. After watching for a while he started inching his way back towards the nest, so that answered that! while I was watching him tho, another chick jumped up and flew off! It was 8:15. I watched him carefully as he flew loops around the area….flapping too much as they often do at first. He gained a lot of altitude and it seemed like he could not figure out how to lower himself to land on the nest…..so he flew higher and higher and further off until I lost him behind some trees…..and then suddenly another chick jumped and started flying loops. This one seemed headed towards the dead branch in some trees where Dad likes to perch. But he could not stick his landing on the dead branch so he landed right in a bunch of leafed out branches…sort of spread eagle. He flapped a lot to stabilize himself and he looked awkward there….and he finally got going again and flew back around those trees and I lost him. I kept waiting for him to reappear. In fact I waited, watched, listened for three hours and neither of the fledglings reappeared. The single remaining chick and mom were on the nest.
I had a bunch of other nests to check so I decided to swing past a lot of them and then return….hoping they would find their way back home by then. So I did that….discovered other nests fledged and a chick missing at one of them. I searched for a while there….and finally decided after a few hours to head back to the nest with two missing chicks. I drove back and as I came around the corner was dismayed that the nest still was occupied by one chick and mom.
I watched some more….and as they hollered for food, I kept thinking that I could hear an occasional peep from an osprey that was coming from a different direction. After all these years, I am very attuned to the sound of ospreys and their voices rise above all other noise. I walked around looking and listening….occasionally hearing the definite sound of an osprey. I am pretty good at triangulating on where it’s coming from and it didn’t sound like it was on the ground….it sounded high. Some hikers walked past and I asked if they heard that peeping and they said no. Really? You cant hear that? I walked towards a pine tree and heard the sound of flapping wings. Oh dear he is here somewhere but I couldn’t see him in this dense tree.
I went to the park office and explained the issue and asked if I could park on that service road while I searched, and asked if they had anyone to help me. They did send one of the park managers to meet me. I finally walked right in under the pine tree and looked straight up and there he was….laying so still, we wondered if he was still alive. But he did move. We took photos…it was still hard to decipher how he was stuck in there all day.
So they called The Raptor Center to see if they had a climber. While we were waiting for TRC to consult with their staff, they others went back to their business and I waited near the nest and the tree….watching listening. Then I got a text that TRC needed more info…..and as I was answering that I heard a commotion of whining, desperate juvenile food begging and a chick came flying towards the nest! I watched it try to land near mom but ended up sort of on her back so she started chasing him…it was seen as an aggressive behavior instead of a chick that could not control his landings.
I ran back to the tree to see if it was that chick….and there was no longer a chick in the pine tree. So he had finally rescued himself. He got back to the nest and kept hollering desperately for food….so hunger was probably the motivating factor that allowed him to get himself out of that mess. And Dad heard the orders and took off for some dinner.
The other chick did not return.
But the chick that stayed home all day was doing a fair amount of flapping, cause it looked like fun to her! So I guess I have to go back tomorrow and check on them and see if the third chick found his way home. It’s beastly hot here this weekend and I was hoping to take a day or two off….but I guess not during fledging season!
I will recheck them and look for the other missing chick down the road, and then return to another nest quite a ways away that had two hopping and flapping chicks yesterday….I know they will fly soon.
None of these nests are anywhere near where I live….so a lot of miles and a lot of time. But I care about each of these beautiful chicks, and if I can be there to help if it’s needed, I will. And if I can’t help, I can learn and I can document . I have seen so many ways they get in trouble. But at least today we had one happy ending….and I am hoping the other chick may be allright too. Photos below of some of today’s misadventures.
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