August 07, 2005
Cam Fix
Nest Update: On Friday night the Blackwater Refuge area had a strong thunderstorm. We believe that during the storm, lightning hit near the Osprey Cam platform. We have the camera/platform grounded, but it's possible lightning hit nearby and was close enough to damage our solar panel and camera.
On Saturday the ospreys looked fine and the platform itself looked solid and unaffected.
We have a replacement camera ready, and we are going to move the solar panel from the Eagle Cam nest over to the osprey nest. The only delay at this time is in scheduling the bucket truck to come out to the Refuge so we can get up to the platform to perform the fix. We rent the truck from the local utility company, so we are at the mercy of their schedule, but we'll get the truck as soon as possible.
The ospreys are old enough now that they should not be overly disturbed by our brief visit to the nest. The mother and oldest will fly away until we leave and the youngest will just stay put. Once we leave, the mother and oldest will immediately return.
In the meantime, while I was at the Refuge Saturday surveying the damage, I took some video of the osprey family. I could see the oldest perching on the platform arm and I could also see that the youngest is still not flying yet.
In the video the mother osprey is returning with a fish dinner. Note that she's holding her prey headfirst. After she lands, you can see her trying to disengage her talon from the fish. Almost immediately the family begins calling out -- the reason for this is that I was out of my car and they weren't particularly happy about that. If you stay in your car on the Wildlife Drive, they don't really notice you, but once you get out they see that you're a human, and begin warning you off. I took the video and then left them to enjoy their meal.
The video has audio, so turn up your speakers. It's a Windows Media Player file (2MB). Right-click on the file link and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer:
| Mother osprey with fish |
And previously some cam watchers had asked what the area directly around the nest looks like. Below are two photos taken from beneath the platform; these are shots of what we can’t see on the web cam.
The first photo shows what the ospreys see if they look to their left, which is the shallow Blackwater River, a wonderful fishing spot. And the second photo shows what the ospreys see if they look below and to their right. This water area often has birds and turtles in it, and in the distance are the trees where the eagles from my previous video were perching. Click on the thumbnails:
 |
 |
We thank everyone for their patience as we perform the camera fix. We'll try to get the ospreys back online as soon as we can.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster