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Aug 1 - Ospreys generally migrate in
August and early September. Females tend to leave before their
mates, who remain behind to feed the fledglings for about two weeks
longer.
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July 27 - The nest
provides the young ospreys with a safe, familiar place to
rest. Osprey siblings spend a lot of time together during the
post-fledging period, though they migrate to wintering grounds alone.
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July 26 - Two of the young ospreys tear at a fish while their sibling stands on the edge of the nest.
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July 23 - One of the juveniles spreads its wings, which are now as long as the adults': nearly 6 feet from tip to tip!
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July 22 - This osprey seems to pose with its fish. It is possible that it caught this fish on its own.
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July 21 - Though it's
true that the parents don't usually teach their offspring to
hunt, in one colony the parents were observed leading their young to
fishing shoals and dropping food in the water for them to retrieve.
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July 19 - Fledged ospreys
have been known to catch fish as early as 74 days after hatching.
Ospreys learn to hunt mostly by watching their siblings--they are
rarely around their parents unless receiving food.
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July 17 - The ospreys assemble at the nest before heading out for the the day.
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July 16 - Juvenile ospreys
are clearly recognizable by their light-tipped feathers and dark
eyes. The light edges of their feathers will wear away and their
eyes will lighten to yellow as the young ospreys grow.
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July 14 - The osprey
family seems to be doing well. All three juveniles are thriving
and return to the nest often, and they will start to catch fish on
their own soon.
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July 13 - The female rearranges the nest while the chicks look on.
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July 12 - The mother
shares some fish with one of her chicks. The ospreys will be fed
by their parents for the last time at 12-13 weeks of age.
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July 11 - The young ospreys and the parents return to the nest frequently to eat and to rest.
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July 10 - Two subsequent pictures show the last osprey chick perched at the edge of the nest...
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...and then not! It looks like all three young ospreys have now taken their first flights!
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July 9 - The second chick left the nest today! Now only this osprey remains constantly in the nest!
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July 8 - The fledged osprey takes off
for an early morning flight, returning just a few minutes later and
huddling back up with its siblings.
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July 7 - The young osprey that flew yesterday returned to the nest this morning, though it left shortly after.
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July 6 - FIRST CHICK FLIES!!
Here you can see three young ospreys in the nest with a parent.
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7 minutes later, only two young remain in the nest! The first osprey has fledged!
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The other two chicks spent the rest of the day as usual, eating fish and exercising their wings often.
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Maybe these two will fly tomorrow!
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July 5 - The outer toe on each foot is
reversible, which is why it sticks straight out to the side. It
allows the ospreys to get a better grip on their slippery prey.
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July 4 - Many times lately, the
parents crouch on the edge of the nest until the nestlings gather
round, and then take off. It seems as though they are showing the
young ospreys how it's done.
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July 3 - Once the young leave the
nest, they usually spend from 10-30 days nearby to be fed by their
parents while they learn to hunt for themselves.
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July 2 - This osprey stalks around the nest like a small tyrannosaurus while its new wings almost lift it off the ground.
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July 1 - All three young are still in
the nest. Once they take their first flights, they will return
either to the nest or to perches near it to be fed by their parents.
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June 30 - Here we get an impressive
display of brand-new feathers. The young ospreys are completely
feathered in their juvenile plumage.
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June 29 - Early morning finds the
young ospreys sprawled on their sides and staring groggily up at their
mom, who just woke them up.
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June 28 - The ospreys are preparing
themselves for flight--they spend more and more time flapping their
wings on the edge of the nest and peering over the side.
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June 27 - The young ospreys will be taking their first flights any day now!
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June 26 - Just because the chicks can eat fish on their own now doesn't mean they will if they have a choice!
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June 22 - It is difficult now to see
the age difference in the chicks. The difference in body mass
between the older and younger ospreys decreases as they grow.
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June 21 - As time goes on, the young ospreys' reddish-brown irises will lighten to the bright yellow of the adults'.
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June 20 - The wings have grown an
incredible amount these last few weeks, and the lengthening flight
feathers are starting to fill them out.
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June 19 - The young ospreys are very active, frequently flapping their wings and looking over the edge of the nest.
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June 18 - The oldest chick is now 39 days old--only about 11 days away from its first flight! |
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June 17 - The young ospreys are quickly catching up to the adults in size!
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June 16 - At first glance, this young
osprey resembles one of its parents landing at the nest. White
feathers are rapidly replacing the gray down on its underside.
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June 15 - The chicks frequently exercise their wings to prepare for their first flights, which should happen in about two weeks.
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June 14 - Today is the first day that we see one of the chicks picking at a fish on its own!
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June 13 - The male rests for a moment while the female divides his latest catch among the chicks.
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June 12 - Instead of crawling and
begging on their bellies, the young ospreys can now walk right up to
the female when she brings them food. In another week, they will
be able to tear it up without her help.
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June 11 - A chick exercises its wings,
and you can see how its flight and tail feathers are coming in
now. The chicks are about halfway to having full juvenile plumage.
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June 10 - It's a hot day, and the ospreys are all panting. The chicks are looking more like the adults every day.
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June 9 - One day these little wings will have grown to make a wingspan of nearly 6 feet!
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June 8 - These chicks’ juvenile
plumage will be fully developed at around 60 days of age—about 30 days
from now for the oldest. The pale feather tips will remain until
the end of the ospreys’ first winter.
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June 7 - At this point in their life, the chicks are gaining about 50-75 grams of body mass every day!
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June 6 - This chick is still getting used to its new leg strength—it seems to have pushed itself over on its head!
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June 5 - Our first shot of a chick up on its feet! This looks like the second-oldest one.
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June 4 - The age difference between
the three chicks is obvious. The youngest chick, still covered in
soft down, is the furthest back. The older two already show
traces of their adult markings, especially on their faces.
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June 3 - The mother is still tearing up fish for the young ospreys, as she will for about two more weeks.
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June 2 - The chicks are growing stronger every day--the one on the left is almost walking now!
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June 1 - Every morning finds the three
osprey chicks huddled at the center of the nest, heads together.
They stay that way until the sun is well up in the sky or a parent
returns with food--whichever comes first.
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May 31 - The chicks grow the fastest
at this age, between 10 and 30 days old. The second chick is in
the foreground, followed by the oldest, and the youngest is farthest
away from the camera.
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May 29 - You can see the first sign of
juvenile feathers appearing on the eldest chick, though it will stay
mostly covered in down for a couple more weeks.
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May 28 - The mom shaded her chicks for hours today, moving with the sun to cast her shadow across the nest.
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May 27 - Here the oldest chick begs for a piece of food--the other two chicks are hidden behind the closest side of the nest.
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May 26 - The mother feeds one of the chicks, passing a bit of fish directly to its beak.
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May 25 - All three chicks are now moving strongly around the nest and aggressively seeking food.
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May 24 - With the high near 90 degrees today, the nestlings spent their time
chasing their mother's shadow around the nest. She protects them from
the sun by standing over them with her wings lowered. |
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May 23 - The male just returned with a nice fish, which the female will soon tear up and feed to the chicks.
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May
22 - A good shot of two of the chicks near the camera. Although the
youngest chick is still considerably smaller than the other two, it has
been seen feeding more frequently.
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May 21 - In 3-nestling broods there can be up to a
60% difference in chick weight, when the youngest is about a week old.
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May 20 - The two older chicks are easier to distinguish than
the smaller chick, which does not appear to be aggressively trying to obtain
food.
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May 19 - The female will brood almost
non-stop for the chicks' first two weeks or so, then brood
intermittently until they are about four weeks old.
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May 18 - The chicks' soft peeps will
begin developing into stronger, louder, and more insistent begging
calls over the next two weeks.
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May 17 - The older chicks are already able to crawl across the nest for food, leaving the youngest one behind.
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May 16 - The male looks on as the
female feeds the chicks. She will continue tearing up food for
them until they are about 40 days old, when they will be able to eat it
on their own.
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May 15 - The female clutches a fish
that the male just dropped off. You can see all three chicks
clearly by looking at the pairs of bold dorsal stripes.
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May 14 - Only the female feeds the young, tearing small pieces of meat from kills that the male brings to the nest.
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May 13 - Here the female feeds
one of the chicks. The chick is in the typical begging posture,
which is about the extent of its movement at this age.
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May 13 - All three hatchlings appear
in this photo--the third hatched today. They will grow rapidly,
fledging in 7-8 weeks.
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May 12 - Here's a great shot of the
first two chicks! You can see the two dark stripes down the
center of its back, which help it blend in with the nest material. |
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May 11 - The red arrow is
pointing at the upright head of the two-day old chick. We expect to see
the second and third chick in two to three day intervals.
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May 10 - We get a quick view of the
eggs and the chick--the chick looks like a funny-shaped egg and is closer to
us than the other two. Osprey chicks are covered in down when
they hatch.
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May 10 - The first egg has hatched! Here you can see the female over the eggs, before the hatch.
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A little while later, you can definitely see three whole eggs.
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The male hardly left the nest all
morning. He kept trying to see what was going on with the eggs,
but the female wouldn't budge. Both parents seem very excited!
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Here's the first definite sign of a
hatch--you can see a bright white eggshell pushed to the side!
You can't really see the chick in the photo--apart from being very
small, it is well camouflaged in the nest.
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Another shot of the eggshell--the
female has covered the chick and the remaining 2 eggs again. The
others should hatch in the order they were laid, at the same time
intervals (2-3 days).
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May 9 - No sign of hatching
yet--tomorrow is the expected hatch date of the first egg. The
chicks are probably peeping from inside the shells by now.
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May 8 - We can't see it in these
photos, but it's possible that the first cracks have already appeared
in the first egg, which is due to hatch in about 2 days. The
shells are "starred" 2-3 days before they actually hatch.
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May 5 - The female lands as the male prepares to take off for his turn away from the nest.
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May 3 - The female appears to be
calling. When a disturbance or potential predator approaches, females
on the nest often give the "alarm call," which is a series of short,
clear whistles falling in pitch.
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May 1 - Nine days until the expected
hatch date, and the ospreys are once again working on the nest.
There is usually another surge of nest-building right after the chicks
hatch.
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April 30 - The ospreys change places
over the eggs. Once these eggs hatch, the chicks will stay in the
nest for 50-55 days before they fledge.
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April 25 - Here's a nice view of the three eggs as the female stoops over them.
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April 24 - This must be the spider that builds its web across the camera lens every night!
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April 23 - The female carefully
rotates the three eggs. The chicks will start peeping when
hatching time comes around, and the first cracks may appear in the eggs
up to 3 days before they emerge.
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April 20 - While the male was
incubating, the female flew off and returned with a fish. She ate
half of it, and the male finished the fish later when they switched off
again.
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April 19 - Here's a neat morning picture of a spider's web built in front of the camera last night.
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April 17 - Studies have shown that
female ospreys spend 95% of the day at the nest (brooding, guarding,
and feeding the young) and only 2–5% off (bathing, foraging, chasing
intruders).
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April 16 - The ospreys can't seem to decide who will get to place this stick--the male ends up relinquishing the honor.
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April 15 - The male returned for his turn on the eggs with something for the female to eat.
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April 14 - Nothing to do now but wait for the eggs to hatch, which should begin around the 10th of May.
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April 13 - It's been 5 days since the last egg, so it is very likely that these three eggs make up the entire clutch.
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April 12 - Here's a nice shot of the female osprey's huge wings as she settles onto the nest.
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April 11 - Early morning finds the ospreys rearranging their nest together.
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April 10 - Notice the difference in
the colors of these three eggs. Osprey eggs vary in ground color
from creamy-white to pink, and are covered in reddish speckles.
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April 9 - You can see all three eggs clearly as the male rotates them during his incubation shift.
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April 8 - This shot was taken a short time before we saw the third egg. It appears to be the female egg-laying!
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April 7 - As the male takes off, we get a glimpse at
the two eggs. Only 30-40 years ago, the osprey became rare as a
result of the egg-thinning properties of the pesticide, DDT. Thanks to
regulation of DDT since then, we can be confident that these egg shells
are of the proper thickness.
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April 6 - Here's the male incubating
the eggs. This pair switches off about every hour, and the female
incubates overnight.
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April 5 - The second egg appeared
sometime this afternoon. The incubation period for ospreys is
about 37 days, so the first egg ought to hatch around May 10th.
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April 4 - The male rotates the egg
while the female is gone. With osprey pairs, both the male and
female incubate the eggs, though the female spends over twice as much
time on them.
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April 3 - Our first glimpse of the
first egg! We should be seeing a new one every 2-3 days, and will
end up with up to 4 eggs.
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April 2 - During copulation, the male is careful to ball up his feet to avoid hurting the female with his talons.
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April 1 - The female tears at a fish that the male brought to her. She has hardly left the nest all day.
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Mar 30 - The female's been spending a lot more time in the nest lately. We may see the first egg any day now!
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Mar 29 - They are constantly tinkering with the nest. The male usually brings materials for the female to arrange.
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Mar 28 - Notice the female osprey's speckled breast (she's in the background), as opposed to the male's almost pure white one.
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Mar 26 - This osprey just returned
with a bunch of dead leaves. The pair has been adding more flat
matter like this to the nest these last couple days--maybe we'll see an
egg soon!
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Mar 25 - Osprey pairs generally mate
between 88 and 338 times per clutch, though only around 39% of the
copulations are successful.
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Mar 23 - Mate fidelity among ospreys
is high, but is strongly related to the ospreys' attachment to the nest
site. Loss of a nest often results in a pair break-up.
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Mar 22 - The first copulation event
caught on camera. In osprey pairs, copulation tends to begin
about two weeks before the female starts laying.
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Mar 21 - As egg-laying approaches
(late March to mid-May), the ospreys will begin lining the nest with
flat material to keep the eggs from falling through.
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Mar 20 - This osprey seems to be picking at a kill, maybe a fish. Live fish make up at least 99% of osprey prey items.
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Mar 18 - One of the ospreys adds a new stick to the nest. They will continue building for the entire chick-rearing period.
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Mar 17 - Ospreys' wingspans are huge, ranging from 5 to 6 feet!
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Mar 16 - Here is a great shot of both
ospreys. The one in front is probably the male. Females
tend to be larger and have a darker, more speckled breast.
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Mar 15 - Both ospreys were at the nest
often today. Here's a beautiful shot of one--maybe the
male. Notice the characteristic dark line through his eye.
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Mar 12 - This starling has been flitting around the nest all day. Let's hope he realizes this nest is already taken!
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Mar 11 - We see our first osprey checking out the
nest. We're not sure if this is a male or female, but he/she visited
three times today.
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