August 15, 2005
Migration Must Wait
Nest Update: I was looking at the Web Log for last year, and on August 15, 2004, we announced that the mother osprey had migrated. Today our present-day mother is still trying to get the youngest out to fish, so that gives us an indication as to the tardiness of our current family. In the five years we've been running the Osprey Cam, this family is the latest, so we're not sure what will happen, but ospreys do migrate throughout September and even October, so we believe the family should have enough time to turn the young into independent ospreys before they leave for Central or South America.
As an illustration of the length of the migration season, here's a graph showing when ospreys have migrated over Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania (click on the thumbnail). And it's worth noting that Hawk Mountain is north of Blackwater and those birds would be coming from cooler climates.
One cam watcher has asked if we would intervene in any way regarding the family, and the answer would likely be no. At this point we don't see any reason why the youngest can't develop into a fledgling, so we would not want to interfere with the parents' efforts to raise the young. In the end, the parents know better than we do regarding how to prepare their chicks for migration, and we trust their wisdom.
As for the youngest and its evasive flying ability, I wanted to make a correction in my observations of the events of Saturday night -- the evening that the youngest osprey had its first flight. Several of our cam watchers mentioned that they thought the lone osprey we saw on the platform Saturday night was the mother, and after looking at the Gallery shots, and I think they might be right. The faint coloring on the bird's chest and the way it was sitting on the edge rather than laying in the nest seems to indicate it probably was the mother.
I still believe that the youngest was probably on the ground near the platform, which would explain why mom just stayed put until the youngest returned. The mother osprey has been very diligent in watching after the chicks, so I don't believe the chick was too far out of her sight.
As for the youngest chick, on Sunday and Monday we saw it do a lot of flapping but we didn't see any clear sign that the chick left the nest, so it's very likely its first flight on Saturday evening was accidental. The chick might have been taken out of the nest by the wind while practicing its flapping, since despite its disappearance the other evening, we haven't seen an empty nest since then.
But regardless of how the youngest became airborne, it seems that the bird is able to fly somewhat and that's the good news, but obviously the youngest chick is going to be a late bloomer this year.
As for the mother, she's been playing some interesting games with the oldest chick during meal time. We're not sure if the oldest is catching its own meals, but it looks like it might be since we sometimes see it with food but can't see where the fish came from. In any regard, on this Gallery page you can see the oldest with a fish that it's moving around the nest and hogging all for itself. The littlest tries to get some and that rarely works, and then the mother tries to intervene and that doesn't work, and finally mom just takes the food away so they can all share. She was trying to be patient, but enough is enough. :-)
And finally in the latest Gallery update, we saw a shot showing the father osprey eating the head of his fish. A father osprey will often deliver a headless fish to the nest after he's eaten the head for himself. There are several theories as to why the father eats the head: some say it's to kill the fish before delivering it to the family so it's not a danger to the chicks; some say it's because the head is a nutritious area and the father needs the energy for flying and hunting; and some say it's so the family will have an easier time tearing off the meaty inside pieces. Ultimately, we don't know for sure why the birds do it, but it's a frequent behavior.
Thanks to all those who took the time to send in their photos. The Galleries help us understand more about the ospreys' actions, and that makes watching the cam a lot more enjoyable.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster