August 01, 2005
Raptor Multimedia
Contest Update: The Chick-Naming Competition has officially ended. I haven't spoken with the FWS staff yet, but they normally take about two weeks to go through all the names and decide on a winner.
Nest Update: We saw the oldest chick briefly flapping above the nest on Monday. The oldest hit the 50-day mark over the weekend, so we should see a first flight this week.
We also saw some interesting feeding photos over the weekend. In one episode, the oldest had taken the fish for itself, since it can tear off pieces on its own now. The youngest approached to get some, but the oldest wasn't sharing. In the meantime, the mother stayed back and did not try to make the oldest share. After the oldest had its fill and abandoned the fish, the mother went over and began feeding it to the youngest. Then the oldest came back after a few minutes to get some more, so she fed them both.
What was most interesting during the photos was that the mother osprey stayed back and let the oldest finish with the fish before she tried to feed it to the youngest and even eat some herself.
And now onto our topic of Raptor Multimedia...Below I've posted a couple of miscellaneous items that I thought might be of interest to our cam watchers:
Platform Photos:
Another one of our talented cam-watching photographers was kind enough to provide us with two wonderful shots of our current osprey family on the cam platform. Click on the two thumbnails below to see recent photos of the mother osprey and the oldest chick (the youngest chick is lying down in the nest). We can see that the oldest is almost as big as mom.
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These shots were taken by photographer Bob Quinn, and we thank him for the use of his photos. Be sure to visit his online photo galleries if you'd like to see more of his terrific Blackwater Refuge photographs featuring lots of beautiful birds and some cute foxes.
Osprey Call:
I thought I'd post an osprey sound file for those who have never heard an osprey calling in the wild. After you listen to it, you can compare it to the bald eagle sound file to hear the difference. Both files are in the MP3 format. Right-click on the file and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer.
 Osprey Call (200KB)Eagle Call (35KB) |
Raptor Watching:
When visitors come to Blackwater Refuge during the spring and summer months, they're likely to see bald eagles, ospreys, and turkey vultures in the air at the same time. However, if a visitor can't see the coloring of the birds as they're flying overhead, then it can be hard to tell what kind of bird it is from a distance.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has a wonderful guide on their website that points out the things to look for when trying to tell the difference between these three birds. Check out their tips and graphics so that the next time you're near water and you see a large soaring bird in the sky, you'll have some clues as to what it might be.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster