June 25, 2006
General Nest News
Nest Update: We have some miscellaneous news that I wanted to pass along. We hear from our bookstore manager that while the youngest chick does indeed put its head down sometimes during meal delivery, there isn't a lot of obvious pecking in the nest. This likely means the youngest was taught a lesson to be submissive, but isn't getting constantly harassed about it.
Our manager did confirm what we suspected earlier -- the two older chicks are the first to feed and are quick to jump on the meal, while often the two younger chicks hang back and eat on the second shift. This is a normal development in such a crowded nest where a hierarchy of some sort would be established based on age and size. She said that the youngest gets more than enough to eat and the relations between the chicks appears to be good when they're laying around together or just napping in a group.
As for the older birds, yesterday we saw some nerve-wracking photos of an older chick with its wings spread at the edge of the nest. It looked like the chick thought it could fly and was preparing to take off. A little too early there, fella.
Also, one cam watcher commented on the fact that we can now make out some coloring on the chicks' chests. As our cam watchers remember, in North America a necklace on the chest of an adult osprey normally means it's a female, while a white chest normally means it's a male.
While we might see necklaces on the chicks, it is not a sure indication of sex at this stage. There have been reports of male chicks sporting a gold necklace in the nest, and also reports of immature birds having necklaces when they left for migration and then losing them after they acquired their adult plumage. So even though our chicks might have coloring on their chests, we can't know for sure what their sex is at this stage.
When full grown, female ospreys will be bigger than males, and once the osprey chicks are almost full grown, size might be an indication of sex. The only problem with this approach is that our camera often distorts the view a bit, and it might be hard to judge size based solely on the camera image.
Speaking of sexes, we are very close to starting our 2006 Chick-Naming Contest. This year we will go back to the old format of letting our cam watchers submit their own names. We're still working out how we're going to handle the prizes now that we have four chicks, but we hope to go live with the contest this week; and as a reminder, the contest is free to enter. So start thinking up your name entries and remember that we probably won't be sure of the sex while the chicks are with us, so gender-neutral names might be best if you can manage it, although it's not a requirement.
One quick mention about the cam: We've noticed it has begun to clear even though we've had rain. This might mean that poop was indeed the cause of the blurriness, and the rain helped wash it away, although I honestly have a hard time believing that the birds could hit the small lens twice in such a very short period of time. I guess with all those birds in the nest, the poop is really flying. We still plan to swap out the camera when we get a break in the weather. If our camera technician changes that plan, I'll mention it.
And one quick eagle mention: Our good friend Woody Dawson, who monitors an eagle nest near our local Susquehanna River, has passed along a very interesting video clip he took not long ago showing their two grown eaglets during meal time. I wanted to share the clip because it offers a unique look at the aggressiveness of older eaglets. In the last weeks of nesting, eaglets can become very aggressive toward the parent that is delivering the food. In fact, I had read that some parents are literally chased off the nest by lunging eaglets, and this clip shows what that looks like. Biologists report that this is why father eagles often stay off the nest when the chicks are big, since the males are the smaller sex and would have trouble handling such aggressive young. Right-click on the link below and choose "Save Target As" to download the 790KB WMV video clip to your computer:
And on a final note: In my next web log post, we will have something very special for our osprey fans. Helen Wycherley is one of the Voluntary Wardens at the Osprey Centre at Loch Garten in Scotland (ospreys were once extinct in Britain, but returned to breed at Loch Garten in the Scottish Highlands in 1954). Helen has been kind enough to share an account of her experiences as a volunteer with the famous Operation Osprey, so I'll post her fascinating report in the next log along with some photos from Loch Garten.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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