Apologies and Explanations

I apologize for the long silence here. I had a serious health crisis that required surgery and that sidelined me for some time this summer. I could not drive, but was lucky enough to have a number of people drive me around to visit the nests during my early convalescence. I managed to keep the Facebook page going with short updates thru this period ( "Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch" on FB). I only missed about ten days to two weeks of activity on most nests. I am on my way to full recovery now and am driving and visiting nests as much as I can to determine final outcomes. I do have a few holes and questions which may remain unanswered. I have witnessed some exciting and unusual behaviors and will be writing more about that later. I believe I have the topic for my next research paper!
Here is a more recent post from the FB page:

As the season changes, so do the behaviors. I am visiting nests for final outcomes, searching for the juveniles and adults. I often find those males perched somewhere high in their territory, looking out for their offspring, snoozing, being there in case some youngster comes back to the nest screaming in desperate hunger...and those that do, are usually females. I watch the males drop a fish and get the heck out of there quickly. I observed a young osprey flying with a young redtail...both were flipping and turning and divebombing...but somehow it did not seem aggressive. No alarm calls, just seemed like playful practicing of their aerial manuevers. It was fun to watch. I am still finding some chicks on or near the nests, adult females are harder and harder to find...some have not been seen since the third week of August now. Male chicks seem to disperse from their natal territory more quickly than females. Its a wistful time of year for me...life is less interesting without Ospreys around to watch. I will keep searching, every free day I have until I cannot find any more Ospreys. I appreciate the reports that are still coming in from volunteers. Thank you all SO much.

final sad news

Sadly I recieved emails today from Lori Arent and Dr Julia Ponder at The Raptor Center and the  surviving osprey chick had to be euthanized after showing neurologial symptoms (seizures). She had just endured too much heat with too little food. There is really not much else to say. Very sad news.

update to sad story

The sad news today is that the chick is not doing very well. I am not surprised, considering the length of time they were left up there without parents. (approx ten days in extreme heat). I tried my best to watch over them and stimulate some action. I care so much for each of these chicks that to lose any like this is painful to me. I watched them suffering and shared my observations every day with those in charge of the rescue at Three Rivers Park District.  Please keep your fingers crossed for this little chick...lets hope for a miracle.

This update is from Dr Ponder at The Raptor Center :
"the one surviving chick had a tough night and is struggling this morning. Not surprising given its weakened condition and a pretty stressful day yesterday - while we were pleasantly surprised at its appearance when it presented, once the stress hormones abated, the chick was pretty down and out. The next 24 hours will be very telling as we see if the chick has enough reserves to respond to treatment.
Relative to the adults, the best hypothesis (and an extremely strong one) is that the tower was hit by lightning while they were perched on it, resulting in acute, simultaneous death. The birds' bodies showed clear evidence of extensive electrical burns. Given the sources of electricity (or relative lack thereof) at the top of the cell tower, the only logical source was lightning. The towers are engineered extensively to withstand such a thing, so it is within reason to consider that it was hit, the birds electrocuted and no other significant signs occurred. He also answered my bigger question of how the chicks could survive in that situation (twigs would not be near enough insulation against a lightning bolt) . Given how the nest was suspended within the structure and the composition of the tower, he suggested it basically acted like a Faraday cage or shield (similar to being in your car during a lightening strike)."

Hoping for better news tomorrow...

sad story

There has been a sad story evolving on an Osprey nest on a cell tower in the western suburbs. A pair of adults were seen lying dead on the side of the cell tower and there were three chicks alive in the nest. A rescue was organized about 5 days after the adults were presumed to have died, permits were acquired, but at the last minute Three Rivers Park District wildlife staff decided not to proceed with the intervention. They saw another adult landing on the nest and were hoping they would feed the chicks. It is unusual for an Osprey to feed chicks that are not their own, although I have seen it happen on several occasions, usually when the male died and the female was left alone caring for chicks. These few males undertook this feeding as a way to secure a mate and a territory, so it was an investment in the future. I went and visited the nest to watch and see if the chicks were getting fed. On my first visit there were 3 chicks and I saw a male drop one fish for the chicks. There was a great deal of aggression between the chicks as they fought for the food. The next time I visited the nest I could only see two chicks. It appeared that we had lost one already. The temps were unusually high during this period, reaching 99 on some days. It is hard for chicks to stay hydrated without enough food in that kind of weather. I did see a male drop one small fish during  that visit also, but it was clearly not enough to sustain them. Every time I visited the nest I shared my observations with Three Rivers Park District. I recommended that the intervention be put back into action but I recieved no response. On my third visit the two chicks were laying down and seemed lethargic. One of them never got up and seemed to lift its head only occasionally and beg for food. The other was stronger and got up and walked around briefly. Again I shared my observations with the park district and asked about the rescue plans. I got no response. On my fourth visit I found no chicks and the dead bodies of the adults were gone. I recieved an email on my Facebook page telling me that a rescue was done and there was only one chick alive. The parents were determined to have died from electrocution. The one surviving chick is at The Raptor Center to be fed and hydrated. It is hoped that it can recover and be put on another nest as a foster chick. It is a difficult time in a chicks life for this kind of thing to happen as she is approaching fledging age. I have my fingers crossed for her. She is in good hands at the Raptor Center. Thanks to them and the American Tower company for intervening in this tragic situation.

Two females!

Very interesting day in the field! The first nest I went to had TWO females on it! They were co exisiting peacefully...both were food begging tho I saw no male nearby. One was incubating ( the female who I have been watching there since April) and the other, perched on the nest edge. I tried to figure out what was going on.
The new female went into the nest cup and sat down right next to the other female, bumping her, pushing right up next to her. Odd.
Then she got up and started moving sticks. They both kept food begging loudly. The resident female got up and looked into the nest cup and appeared to be tending to chicks as the other female watched. After about 30 minutes of me scratching my head, the resident female looked at this other female, with her head cocked to the side...and she stood up, went over to the other female and chest bumped her off the nest. No real aggression, but a definite message to get lost. It was crazy! No male ever arrived and the resident female quit food begging after the other female visitor left. I guess they were food begging from each other! Another unusual behavior...what a year! I also counted a lot of chicks heads, including some wee ones, and watched a lot of feedings. Great day. Wish I had a video camera to document those two females!

Hatching

This photo was taken several years ago when I had to clear some twine out of a nest. They are one week old Osprey chicks.

Once again all the field work takes so much time I do not get around to posting info for people to read. The chicks are beginning to hatch and I have been able to see chicks already on a few nests. They usually are not visible until they are at least one week to ten days old. I have seen their tiny beaks reaching up for food and some sibling rivalry, establishing the "pecking order", literally! There is a phase when they do peck at each other and determine the dominant chick and subordinate chicks. This order is usually followed during feedings. I have never seen siblicide, but it has been reported in the literature. Ospreys are generally not very aggressive birds and most Osprey chicks do survive the sibling rivalry. There are so many interesting behaviors at this time. Today I noticed one male was sitting on the nest perch, with a perch! He was eating, but he stopped every few bites and looked at the female sitting in the nest...checking for a signal that she wanted food. She sat quietly for a while and then she stood up and he went to the nest immediately with his fish. Oddly, she picked up a whole fish off the nest and flew off...but returned very quickly without the fish. I believe she was discarding an old fish. ( This male must be a very good provider if they are discarding fish!)  She then took the fresh fish from the male and began taking small bites and leaning into the nest cup and offering it to the chicks. I could not see the chicks, but this is how we can determine that hatching has occured, by observing this feeding behavior. The male sat on the nest edge and watched, staring into the nestcup. Now incubating turns to brooding, and the difference can be hard to determine. I have seen so many hatches for 19 years that I do get a sense of what is going on quite quickly...the restlessness, rocking and wiggling of the female, a slight change in the body posture, staring down as she sits, getting up part way to peek beneath. The male will often stand on the nest edge waiting for a look at the chicks. This morning as I was waiting for a clue from one female, she stood up and carefully picked up  a beautiful half of an osprey eggshell and moved it to the side! So, we have more Ospreys than we did a week ago! Yeah!

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Its been an interesting week! I have received several financial donations, one from an anonymous donor and the other from Sally Donart. I am so deeply grateful for this generous support. This will allow me to fill the tank, visit more nests and gather more data. I cannot express how much these donations mean to me. I have not established this project as a non profit, as that costs money too. I am hoping to find an established non profit organization who would like to take me under their wing as a sub project. (Any ideas?)
I  also investigated a problem nest on an active power pole and shared my insights on Osprey behavior with Xcel Energy. It appears that the problem is now resolved. I appreciate  Xcel  Energy's interest in doing the right thing when the Ospreys begin building nests on their structures.
So once again I say, THANKS to the donors and to Xcel Energy!

Sadly, we have reached the point in the nesting season where it appears that some nests are starting to fail. I visited a nest that had been incubating for the past few weeks but  I found the female struggling with a large piece of landscape fabric that they hauled up there. She tugged and pulled and pushed and tucked and yet it remained in the way. She did not sit in incubating posture the entire time I was there (almost an hour). I am wondering if the eggs are under the fabric. I hate it when they do stupid things. But Ospreys are known for picking up odd stuff to line their nests...over the years we have found hats, gloves, a lanyard with keys on it, an arrow, twine (lots of killer twine), plastic bags, etc.
I found another nest totally empty. No clue about what happened there, tho I am not sure they laid eggs at all. With well over 80 nests to monitor, its hard to visit as often as I would like.
I have identified 79 birds by their bands so far, with a few difficult birds still elluding my prying eyes.