Finally, a fish….

 I suppose some of you want your daily report on the orphan chick and the kind hearted, but unrelated, male! After a night of very weird nightmares, I got up early but with one of those anxiety hangovers from disturbing dreams. I wanted to get an early start but my trusty monitor Vicky beat me to it and was already at the nest site and reporting two ospreys there! Yeah! So I zoomed over and found the chick on the nest and Vicky out searching since she had seen them both fly off to the lake nearby. So she came back and we watched our girl after she moved to the lightpole. After a while the chick flew off and then, of course, the Male came with the tail end of a fish. He went to the nest first….and no chick came so he moved to the lights and ate it. These two seem to have trouble connecting!

It is always fun to connect with the monitors and chat a bit! Then Vicky had to depart and I sat and waited. The male departed….and I was there for several hours. No ospreys. Then about 10 am the chick returned, did some food begging….but she didn’t stay long. She did try to poop, and only a drop came out. This concerned me. She needed her tank to be filled. Off she flew, I checked all known perches and could not spot either one. After several hours I just had to pee and get some lunch so I headed up to a nearby grocery store.

I drove past à lake and something caught my eye, so I turned around and went back….sure enough, across the lake was a juvenile osprey. I watched for a long time….and slowly started to notice that she had a silver band on her left leg….so she was not the chick I was looking for. She made a dive in the water but came up empty, as most chicks do. Then I continued to the store and high tailed it back to the nest.

Damn. After literally hours of waiting and watching, when I am gone for 30 min….the male seems to have delivered a fish as the chick was on the nest eating! Woo hoo! I watched her for a while and then she flew off to the lake and one of her favorite perches and finished her fish. It wasn’t huge but it was a decent size fish and when she had finished, her crop,was full. I have waited all week to see this. I was very tired so decided this was a good point for me to head home. I will revisit tomorrow, after I check a few other nests.

I am relieved that she finally had a good meal. I hope she and this heroic male can make better connections and she can fill her tank for the grand journey ahead. I have fallen deeply in love with her….there is one or two like this every year, that command my attention and captivate my heart. And a part of me can’t wait for next year to see if this male and the single mom will both survive and become a real mated pair and produce a big family….and the female will finally have full support and protection from a male. I hope he will fight off the polygynous male down the road, and fully claim this territory.