Single Dad

 For those of you who are wondering about the new single Dad that I wrote about recently….me and two monitors are keeping a close eye on them. I visited that nest twice today….first thing in the morning I arrived and found the chick sitting up on the nest with a pretty full crop. Dad was perched nearby, watching over the little guy. Dad took off and grabbed some fresh grasses and brought them to the nest. Then he walked around the nest, arranging things before he picked up a half eaten fish that was on the nest and began feeding the little guy. What was so heart warming to me was that the chick had a fairly full crop, and Dads was empty.

Gosh its so easy to think these situations are hopeless, but this male is coming around. I think the little guy is raising this male to be a good dad! We have been thru some really scorching hot weather, and our little friend is surviving. Its been almost a month since we discovered the Mom missing. We worry about him being alone so much….but today after I checked a bunch of other nests, I came back and found Dad again, on the nest edge, just hanging out with the chick about five hours later, and the little one had a full crop again! He looks like he may have 10 days to two weeks till fledge…..so keep your fingers crossed! But today I saw the male there more than I have on other visits, and the chick is doing well. Its looking like this chick might make it! He was grabbing the fish from Dad this morning with some attitude!

I have fallen in love with him.

Challenging summer….

 Well folks its been a hell of a summer for me personally, with a lot of difficult circumstances presenting themselves that have kept me from the osprey fieldwork and from writing posts or answering all emails. Stumbling along the best I can. Sometimes life just presents us with obstacles and challenges and we just cant do what we want every day. My apologies. I am squeezing in nest visits when possible. So many success stories with healthy chicks preparing to fledge….and some sad failures. Many of the long time readers will remember my stories about the single Dad who raised three chicks on his own after his mate disappeared when the chicks were about 3-4 weeks old. All fledged successfully! That male holds a special place in my heart tho he is no longer with us. Well this year we have a similar story….a nest where the female just disappeared leaving a male to care for one chick on his own. Sadly we are coming to realize that he does not have the strong parental instinct's that our other single Dad did. That other male had previous parental experience which probably served him well, and this one may be a first time father. This chick was also younger when the female disappeared, and this male is rarely on the nest. Its been about a week and a half and the chick is surviving, but is alone much of the time, and the male is gone for 3 hours at a time routinely. There are three of us taking turns monitoring the nest the best we can…..but with a stretch of extreme heat predicted in the coming week, I wonder if the little guy will get enough fish to stay hydrated. Fingers crossed! He is starting to feather out nicely so will have a little more thermal protection. I do remember at the beginning of that other situation, I thought the chicks were doomed, but sometimes nature has a way of surprising us!

Yesterday I was watching a nest where the male delivered a fish and the female began feeding the chicks……and males often stay to watch a feeding, but this one lined up with the chicks to be fed by Mom!!!!! What the heck? He kept snatching those fish bites before the little guys could! I have never seen an adult male do that! Mom finally turned away to try to feed the chicks from her other side. Funny, and well, just weird. I scratched my head…..I love it when I see a new behavior, and it challenges me to make sense of it. Dont ask me to explain….cause I can‘t!

I think we may see the first flights of some of our older chicks in the next week…..so fasten your seat belts!

Arboretum osprey chick has hatched!

 The remaining egg on the Arboretum cam osprey nest has hatched this morning….and gotten it’s first feeding! 

Accident?

 I am getting a lot of inquiries about the egg on the Arboretum cam nest that is on the outer edge…here is what I shared with the Arboretum folks about all this. People have jumped to an a conclusion that the female chose to reject that egg and I dont think thats actually what happened.

When I watched that video I thought it was actually an accident. She started to roll the egg, which is normal behavior but the nest has been so damaged by storms that the egg hit a slope and rolled to the edge of the nest. They can’t pick up an egg and return it….and it’s pretty hard to roll it back uphill when all you have is a beak. She settled on the remaining egg and kept looking at the other egg….like it concerned her, but she didn’t know what to do about it. It was also very windy when she was trying to roll the egg. I don’t think she actually meant to reject an egg….it was stormy and she was trying to roll an egg and it just didnt go well, partly because of the state of the nest. Usually they are rolling an egg in a soft grassy cup in the nest, that sort of contains it, and it doesn’t roll away like that.

The nest base has decomposed so it’s really just dirt….and the sticks they have added are not getting anchored in anything so they blow off after every storm. And the dirt base is not flat, so it looks like the nest edge drops off slightly….which caused the egg to roll to the edge.

Its sad, but ya know….shit happens. Storms, damaged nests, etc…But life goes in and many nests are hatching and today I actually saw my first chick! They are usually too small to see for at least 1-2 weeks, and I saw one tiny head during a feeding….just briefly before it fell over, as they do!

Hatched!

 Our first chicks have hatched! Right on schedule, day 39! It just never gets old, and is still a thrill to see after 29 years of watching the ospreys. At first Momma was just sitting but she kept hunching up to peek beneath her breast. Then Dad arrived with wet grasses to cool the little ones. Both adults stood side by side staring into the nestcup. Mom walked around the edge of the nest and picked up a half eaten fish, leftovers from a previous feeding, and began offering little bits of fish into the nest. Chicks are too tiny to be seen yet, but they are in there!!!!

Storm loss

 Sadly I did find one catastrophic loss today….

one nest that was removed last fall, was rebuilt this spring and eggs were laid in it…..is completely gone after the storm. I waited until i saw both adults. Good to know they are ok.

Photo from several weeks ago, and today…..sigh. They worked so hard to rebuild the nest….

Most other nests we are finding to be ok…..some damaged a bit, but incubation continues. Still making the rounds tho….a lot of nests to visit.

 

The storm….

 hey guys just want to make a point here…..if you post a comment on this page and you dont get a reply, do not assume that I am blowing you off. As many of you know, I am stretched very thin, trying to do so much, and I often miss stuff on Facebook. That is why I frequently post my email address…..please use it if you are seeking an answer, want to share info, or want to communicate with me for any reason. I always answer people, eventually, but on occasion I miss what is posted here….you can always contact me at osprey.mn@gmail.com.

I prefer to have conversations about specific nests or monitoring via email, so just want you all to know that I am available….but facebook is just not the best way to connect with me. My apologies to anyone whose comments here were overlooked.

I just have so many hours in a day, and facebook has become a lower priority out of necessity. Emails are MUCH less likely to be missed!

I am hearing from many of our intrepid nest monitors that most nests survived the storm……some nests were damaged, but we are locating both adults on most nests….of course it will take time to recheck all nests. These birds never fail to amaze me by how tough they are, but weathering storms is just part of being an osprey. I would always prefer to lose eggs than chicks. At this stage they still could reclutch, tho its getting late. And we may be in for another round of storms tonight….hopefully less severe.

Many thanks to all the monitors who were out there today checking things out!!!!! I treasure all of you who care so deeply about ”your” ospreys!

As one of the monitors drove me to a medical test today, we talked about a nest a few years ago that had three fairly large chicks, and a huge storm pelted them with hail that was so deep, the snowplows had to remove it from the roads….piled high. That poor female withstood that beating, trying to protect three chicks but they were too big to cover fully. Two of them died, but she managed to save one chick, and she survived uninjured!

I also remember many years ago a big tornado went thru the Hugo area, leveling homes, filling a lake with debris. There was an osprey nest about one football field away from totally flattened houses. When I checked them the day after the storm, the eggs were hatching and the adult's were feeding the tiny chicks! It was truely awesome! These birds deserve so much respect for what they endure to breed successfully!!!! So think good thoughts for them all tonight!!!!