July 05, 2005
Morning with the Family
Nest News: We've had a lot of great close-up views of the chicks recently as they've been posing right in front of the camera.
In two of the recent photos, we saw perhaps our best comparison yet of an empty and full crop on the chicks. As a reminder, the crop is a sack on the upper chest where a bird stores food for later digestion. From the parents' point of view, the advantage of a crop is that it means they don't have to feed the chicks as often since the young birds are storing food in their crops. It's always a good sign to see a chick with a bulging crop because it means they're getting fed.
We'll update the Gallery in a few days with all the revealing shots. Now onto the videos...
On Sunday, July 2, I took an early morning trip around the Wildlife Drive to spy on the osprey family at the platform. Our gift store manager had told me that the chicks were now visible from the road that winds through the Refuge, so I took my video camera and went out to see what I could see. It was quite a morning.
The weather was perfect as it was sunny and calm, and after about twenty minutes on the paved Drive, I was lucky enough to have seen four adult bald eagles, three adult ospreys, six turkey vultures, two great white egrets, three great blue herons, four turtles, and a rabbit munching on some dewy grass by the road.
As I arrived at the Osprey Cam platform, I noticed that the mother osprey seemed agitated and appeared to be calling out. High in the air above the platform was the father osprey and an adult bald eagle. It seemed the eagle had come too close to the platform for comfort, and the father osprey was trying to escort him from the premises.
The eagle seemed to go quietly, so after performing his duty, the father osprey then flew off to find a fish for the family. However, after about ten minutes, two adult bald eagles flew back into the area, and landed in a group of trees about 100 yards to the left of the osprey platform.
The mother osprey started calling out again, but this time she was on her own as the father osprey was out of the area on his fishing trip. Not liking that now two eagles were in range, the mother osprey took matters into her own hands and left the chicks to fly toward the eagles.
Once she reached them, the mother osprey began a sequence of slow dives at the two eagles, making it clear that they were not welcome. She continued for about five minutes, then returned to the platform, where the two chicks were lying low. Once she returned, their little heads popped up so I could see they were in the nest. After watching the family for awhile, I saw one of the chicks give a mini flap of his wings -- a sure sign that they're beginning to exercise their appendages.
The mother osprey continued to stay with the chicks as they awaited the return of the father, but a short time later, she again noticed a bald eagle hanging out in the nearby trees, and so she left again to offer more intimidation. This time, however, the chicks stayed upright, so both could be seen together in the nest. After a few minutes, the mother came back and soon after the father arrived with a fish lunch.
All in all, it was a rewarding morning as I got to see the rapidly growing chicks, as well as a display of how the family works together to keep the little ones safe. The eagles kept them hopping, but the osprey parents did well.
By the way, all the eagles I saw were adults -- no sign of any young eaglets on this trip. As for the osprey chicks, they will need protecting for a little while longer, but soon they will be big enough to take care of themselves.
Below are several videos of the day's events. The clips are not highly detailed because I wanted to keep a safe distance from the ospreys so as not to upset them. These are Windows Media Player files (.wmv) and the file sizes are shown next to the links. Right-click on the links and choose "Save Target As" to download the clips to your hard drive.
1. One of the offending eagles that was hanging out in the trees near the platform (3.5MB)
2. The mother osprey dive bombing the eagles in the trees and then returning to her chicks (2.4MB)
3. Two chicks home alone for a short time as the mother osprey goes off on another eagle mission (1.6MB)
4. A small wing flap from one of the chicks (1MB)
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster