July 23, 2006
TV Monitor Videos
Nest Update: Over the last few days, we've been a bit concerned because we had not seen a photo showing all four chicks in the nest together. During the recent meals at the nest, only two of the three fledglings have been visible. And during the rain on Saturday morning, two of the fledglings returned to lie in the nest with the youngest, but the third did not. Also in the evenings, we've only been seeing two fledglings returning for the night.
Our bookstore manager says she thinks she saw four chicks with the mother on Friday (via the TV monitor) but we don't have a photo showing that, so we're not sure if it was the missing fledgling or the father that was on the nest with the others.
It seemed too early for any of the fledglings to be completely independent. They are still relying on the parents for quite a bit of their food, although we think we may have seen one of the older chicks doing some fishing of his own. Also it seemed too early for them to be spending their entire night in the trees, so we wanted to be sure that no harm has come to any of the fledglings. Our ranger did check beneath the platform, but from what he could see, there was nothing obvious to indicate that there was an accident.
Finally, Sunday evening we caught a fleeting glimpse of five birds on the nest. It was too dark to be sure, but we're hoping the fifth bird was the missing fledgling.
If any of our cam watchers catch a glimpse of more than four birds on the nest over the coming week, please send in the photo. If you've never sent in a photo before, you can find instructions for doing so here. We'll keep looking for signs that all four chicks are healthy and well.
For those who are keeping track, our three oldest chicks fledged at 56-57 days of age. The youngest chick is now eight weeks old, so he could fly at any time, although he doesn't seem to be in a hurry. He's been seen flapping his wings strongly, so he appears healthy and able. We'll just have to wait until he feels ready.
It's been touching to watch the mother osprey hanging around the nest with our youngest chick. While the youngest is at the nest all day, it's important that a parent keep an eye on him. Our bookstore manager reports that last Monday, an eagle was circling the platform and making the mother osprey very upset. (I think this photo was from that time period.) So a parent cannot stray too far from the platform while the youngest is still nest-bound.
One cam watcher asked about migration: The mother will likely head south first -- probably around mid or late August -- once the chicks are all fledged and capable of looking after themselves. Then the father will be responsible for keeping watch over the fledglings until they are ready to migrate, which will probably be in early or mid September. We'll talk more about migration in our upcoming web logs, but at this stage, none of the ospreys are ready to migrate just yet.
TV Monitor Videos
As I promised earlier, I am posting several video clips that I captured from our Osprey Cam TV monitor at the Visitor Center last week. These videos were recorded right after our first fledgling started flying last Sunday morning (an event you can see in the videos I posted previously).
The video clips below are Windows Media Video files. You can right-click the image and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to download the clips to your computer. Forgive the misty quality of the videos -- it's caused by the poop residue on the camera lens.
In the first video, we see the mother return to the nest with a piece of fish. The sole fledgling is gone from the nest, and one of the older chicks commandeers the fish for himself while fending off the youngest chick.
In the second video, the mother returns again with a piece of fish, which the same chick as before takes for himself (fish hog!). Then the mother starts looking skyward, and begins calling out in alarm at something above the nest. This is the scene we saw in my previously posted videos from the Wildlife Drive, when a strange osprey tried to land on the fledgling chick, which was sitting on the camera arm, out of our view. The mother jumps up twice to scare off the intruder, and at the end of this video you see the intruder flying away from the platform.
In the third video, the youngest chick decides he's had enough of the fish hog taking all the meals, so he tries to challenge the older chick. Unfortunately, the older chick has a size advantage and intimidates the youngest into backing off.
In the fourth video, the new fledgling hop-flies to one end of the platform, and a pre-fledgling imitates him by flying over to the same side. Then the new fledgling flies off the platform. Note that during this video the youngest has assumed his head-down submissive posture while near the mother. He assumed this posture after being bullied by the older chick over the food.
And in the final video, the new fledgling is sitting on the camera arm (out of our view), but his shadow is visible in the lower left corner. Then the new fledgling flies down to the nest, which makes the camera arm vibrate. Note that the chick in the middle of the nest is trying to swallow a fish tail, as he finishes off the mother's most recent meal.
Thanks to those sending in photos to our cam gallery. If we see any photos of all four chicks at the nest, we'll post them on the cam page.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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