Osprey Cam Web Log 2006

Loch Garten Ospreys

Nest Update: I have a long post tonight, so please bear with me and we’ll get to all the good stuff. First, we’re trying to break out of a vicious rain spell that is causing serious problems throughout Maryland. Some areas have received almost a foot of rain in the last several days. Government buildings are closed in Wash., DC, many roads have been washed out in the county where Blackwater is located, and in my home area, several thousand people have been evacuated because of a possible dam breach. So the weather is a real issue for everyone.

The weather forecasters say it should get better in the next couple days and clear up so we can dry out. From what we can tell, the osprey family is doing well, but we have noticed quite a few feeding sessions where the three oldest chicks are mobbing the food, and the youngest is being forced to stay back, mainly because one of the older chicks is intimidating him. It’s possible the father osprey has been hampered by waterlogged wings and poor fishing conditions with the heavy rain, and there might be some hunger tension in the nest.

We have seen the youngest getting fed, but he has to wait. The other day I saw one session where the youngest had been bullied into a corner, and both parents were feeding the young. The mother finished first, then she promptly hopped over to the father and took away his remaining fish, then she fed some to the youngest and also ate some herself. So we’re hoping that as the weather improves, this tension might ease a bit. Something else that will help is when the youngest chick gets a bit bigger -- and closer to the other chicks’ size -- then he won’t be so easy to intimidate. As we can see, since the oldest three have gotten closer in size, the squabbling between them has diminished.

At this point, we’re waiting to start our Chick-Naming Contest. There is some discussion going on as to how we want to run it this year with four chicks to name. Also, I had planned to go to the Refuge this weekend to capture some video of the chicks, but I think I’ll wait until next weekend because of the weather. Finally, we'll update the Gallery in the next few days.

----------------------------------------

In this web log post, we have a special treat for all our osprey fans. Helen Wycherley is one of the Voluntary Wardens at the Osprey Centre at Loch Garten in Scotland, and she has been kind enough to share an account of her experiences as a volunteer with the famous Operation Osprey.

Ospreys are very special birds to the people of Britain because egg collecting and hunting had once driven the raptors to extinction there, but now they are coming back. At this time it’s believed that there are around 160 pairs of ospreys in the United Kingdom, but the revival of ospreys has not been easy, and the achievement is largely due to people like Helen who volunteer their time to look after the ospreys and to ensure that they have every chance to re-establish a healthy breeding population.

Loch Garten was the first place in Britain where ospreys made their official comeback after it was believed they were extinct (there is currently some controversy about whether they were completely extinct or whether a couple osprey pairs had remained in isolated areas; but if so, they were in very small numbers).

Henry and EJ are the current osprey couple on the Loch Garten Osprey Cam, and their entertaining exploits over the last few years read like a human soap opera. To give one example: Last year, Henry returned late from migration, and showed up with oil on his feathers. Watchers assumed he might have been blown out to sea in heavy winds and landed on a ship or oil rig to rest. But EJ had already mated with another male and was incubating the new male’s eggs. Henry showed up at Loch Garten, drove off the other male, and then promptly kicked all the eggs out of the nest since he “knew” they were not his! They really are a colorful pair of birds.

So please join us as Helen describes the beautiful area of Loch Garten and her interesting duties as a member of Operation Osprey. (And please click on the thumbnail photos to see the larger versions.)

Loch Garten and Operation Osprey
by Helen Wycherley

In 19th century Britain, ospreys were persecuted into extinction by egg collectors and hunters. It is thought that the last pair bred in England in the 1840s and the last pair in Scotland in 1916. After that, no pairs were known to breed, although ospreys were seen on migration sometimes on their way north to Scandinavia. Thankfully in 1954, a pair decided to breed in Strathspey, Scottish Highlands, rather than continue on to Scandinavia. But after a couple of years of no additional young -- often due to continued egg-collection -- George Waterston of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) (which is the British equivalent of the Audubon Society) made the brave and visionary decision in 1959 to open the nest to public viewing in order to create support for the birds, and in that first year 14,000 people came to see the nesting ospreys.

In those days, the blind was a Romany caravan, and people had to queue to go inside one at a time. A round-the-clock vigil was organised to safeguard the nesting birds from egg thieves [osprey eggs have been called the handsomest of hawks’ eggs]. Volunteers would brave the cold and camp in tents, in the sub-zero temperatures of a Scottish winter, to ensure the safety of the birds.

Back then there were no mobile phones, so lengths of string were fed back to others through the woods so that if anything happened, a couple of sharp tugs would have the cavalry arriving! Thankfully, we are now in the modern era, and such rudimentary techniques are no longer needed, but it was the dedication of this army of volunteers that enabled the osprey to return to Britain and be successful again.

So for my part, I packed my bags, and like many of my predecessors, started my annual migration northwards to Scotland and Strathspey. This is a beautiful valley, lined by the Caledonian Forest and nestled at the edge of the Cairngorm Mountains, with the River Spey winding its way through the strath pass lochs and lochans. Operation Osprey takes place in the heart of this landscape at Loch Garten, which is part of the Abernethy Forest nature reserve. The Romany caravan has long since been replaced by a purpose-built Osprey Centre made from locally sourced timber from the sustainably managed forest of Abernethy.

In April the temperatures here are known to plummet to -15°C or 5°F, and this Easter was witness to blizzards, so you have to be prepared! Osprey watching is a game of sitting and waiting, so wearing enough layers to warrant auditioning for the “Pillsbury Dough-boy” is just fine! The volunteers appear to shed pounds when they return off duty! There is a definite fashion when it comes to hats, too. Do you go for the Sherlock Holmes deer-stalker complete with ear-flaps, the traditional bobble hat, or a funky affair? It’s a tough decision!!!

As a volunteer my duties are really quite varied. There are three teams of two volunteers, and between them twenty-four hours in the day are covered, seven days a week from before the osprey return, until after they depart. The rotation was allegedly created in the 1960s, but the amazing thing is…it still works. Each day there are four shifts, 8am - 1pm, 1pm - 6pm, 6pm - 10pm, and 10pm - 8am. The minimum stay is one week, and the maximum is two weeks as up to one hundred volunteers want to take part in Operation Osprey each season.

So depending on your shift, there are always hours in the day to call your own and do other things. The side-trip options are endless and include the “Walkers” shortcake biscuit factory, the Malt Whiskey Trail, a round of golf at Nethybridge or Carrbridge, a steam train ride to the real Harry Potter “Hogwarts” station, or a trip up the funicular train to the top of Cairngorm Mountain. The great outdoors can deliver as well, with red deer herds, cheeky red squirrels, majestic golden eagle, Scottish crossbills, crested tits, goldeneye, snow bunting, ptarmigan, red grouse, great northern loon, king eider and of course the largest grouse, the capercaillie. All of these are on the doorstep of Loch Garten as the Osprey Centre is situated in the middle of the Abernethy Forest, an enormous reserve covering 33,400 acres (13,500 hectares) which stretches from the tree-lined valley floor to the montane high plateaux of the Cairngorms.

Personally, I go for the company of “my” ospreys.

When you are on duty, you sit in a blind that is seventy-five yards nearer to the osprey nest than the Centre, and is the nerve-centre of Operation Osprey….the hallowed turf of the “Forward Hide.” To the uninitiated it’s a glorified shed in the woods; to the select few, it’s a place in paradise.

It is here that all of the duties are carried out. We watch in relative comfort compared to the old-times, for we have a gas fire, a gas hob for brewing that all important coffee, and the TV monitor! And of course the infamous volunteers’ biscuit tin! The ospreys sit about 200 yards in front of you, relatively oblivious to the fact that we are there, though I know from experience that a good loud sneeze will earn you the osprey equivalent of a “hard stare”!!!!

Just you, the ospreys, and the mountains… perfect.

The Loch Garten ospreys are the most studied pair in the world, and the volunteers play a crucial role in this. We record all the movements they make! Oh and I mean “every” movement! Be it flying off to get a fish… what time, which direction! Or coming back with one…what time, from which direction, what sort of fish, how big was it, did it have a head! To even mating… how many times a day, at what times, and were they successful! The poor birds -- I often feel as if I am a judge at the Olympics and should be holding a card up with 8/10 on it!!!! They really do get no privacy!

If we are inclined, we can also help out the RSPB staff in the Osprey Centre. Up to 40,000 visitors each year come to see the world famous ospreys, and have included many famous faces. The visitors are treated to glorious views of the nest, the ospreys’ favourite perches, and a bank of TV monitors relaying live images from cameras to the Centre. Many visitors have never seen ospreys before, so explaining the life and times of our pair to them can be enlightening and cause a lot of laughter! The current pair “Henry and EJ” have been here for 4 years, and their story is enough to beat the plot of Dallas or Dynasty! The details can be found at the Osprey Diaries website.

There is even a live feed every sixty seconds to the Internet, so if you want to follow Henry and EJ’s story for 2006, go to the current diary.

If we are on night duty, then we get the privilege to spend the night with the ospreys in the woods. It is magnificent, and most volunteers see it as the most wonderful privilege rather than a duty. There is a bunk if you fancy a kip (although warm sleeping bags are needed in March!) and mosi-coils for the summer when the midge wakes up out of its winter slumber! The Scottish midge (Culicoides impunctatus – or the Highland Biting Midge) is ten times smaller than the mosquito, but probably even more annoying!

In the spring, the morning brings the capercaillie out to lek [meeting of males for a competitive mating display], and visitors to the Osprey Centre between 5.30am and 8am can witness the magnificent display of these “turkey-sized” grouse. In the summer, Henry may even wake you up with his early morning display, a high pitched “peep-peep-peep” accompanied by the roller-coaster “sky-dance”. You’ll certainly hear him, but as he does this at 3am or 4am, you’ll be very lucky to witness the flight as its dark! In the summer, the volunteers appear smaller too, as they have almost certainly ditched the thermal underwear, and are now found in t-shirts positively basking in the sunshine!

In the evening, walks down to the Loch may be rewarded with views of otters playing on the banks, and sometimes roe deer come to within 10 yards or so of the Forward Hide. Red squirrels are frequently heard dropping pine cones on the roof, or if you are really, really lucky, it’ll be the Scottish crossbill!

When not on duty, the volunteers relax in the chalets, Swiss-style cottages with steep-sided roofs to repel the snow. Each team of two shares the same chalet, and you can meet people and make friends which will last a lifetime. People come from all walks of life (electricians, radiographers, artists, students, teachers, or retired), are aged eighteen to eighty (or so!), and come from all over the world. But they all have things in common: a love for the great outdoors, a passion for wildlife, and the need to conserve the osprey for everyone.

Two million people have visited the Osprey Centre, and enjoyed the wonders of these birds at close hand. The good news is that thanks to the volunteers of Operation Osprey, the nest at Loch Garten has not been robbed since the early 1970s. The dedicated Operation Osprey volunteers, and enthusiastic RSPB staff, continue to ensure that the legacy of osprey breeding at Loch Garten will continue for many generations.

If you want more information regarding volunteering at Operation Osprey at Loch Garten, please visit the Loch Garten RSPB website. And if you are interested in other opportunities to volunteer for the RSPB please visit the general RSPB website.

If you require further information on any volunteering issue for the RSPB, please contact the volunteer coordinator via email at:
volunteers@rspb.org.uk

----------------------------

Much thanks to Helen for sharing her wonderful account with us. And a big thanks to all those in Britain who work so hard to ensure that the ospreys will never vanish again.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
(contact)

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
(contact)

One-Month-Old Chicks

Nest Update: The bucket truck worker was delayed on Thursday, so we're planning to have him come out on Friday to replace the cam. Hopefully thunderstorms will stay away so we can get the camera swap done. Based on how the cam looked after we recently cleaned it, we believe there might be a leak in the water-tight camera housing and it's letting moisture and humidity collect on the inside, so we're going to put in another camera.

One cam watcher asked how the ospreys handle our visits to the nest. Ospreys are more tolerant of humans than eagles are, but we still try to minimize the number of times we go up to the osprey nest.

Normally there are two times when we won't go up -- right after the chicks are born (because the chicks can't regulate their own body temperatures and need their mother at the nest) and right before the chicks are about to fledge (because spooking them could make them jump from the nest prematurely, and they could hurt themselves). But right now -- with the chicks turning one month old this week -- we are still about three to four weeks away from a first flight, so it's a safe time to visit.

When our bucket truck worker does go up, the parents will fly around and call out, but they will not normally bother the visitor. The chicks will mostly sit and watch as the worker cleans or repairs the cam, and the osprey parents will return once the worker leaves the platform. In the end, it's probably more stressful for the parents than the chicks.

One-Month-Old Chicks

So how are the chicks doing? From what we can see, they all appear to be doing well, and as of Friday, they will all be at least one month old. Our bookstore manager reported that as of last week, the youngest was still being aggressive in getting its share of the meals, which is probably why it has survived to this point. However, I did notice that in just the last few days, we've seen some photos where the youngest was seen with its head down, which likely means it is learning to be submissive much like the middle chicks have in the past.

In the first three weeks of nest life, the oldest allowed the youngest to eat beside him, so we're not sure yet if the youngest is being put in its place by a middle chick or by the oldest chick, now that our youngest is getting bigger. I did see some photos today that clearly showed the youngest maneuvering around to get some of the meal, and the chick seemed to be successful in getting fed.

One cam watcher was concerned that the youngest might be getting shut out of the meals altogether, but that doesn't appear to be the case. What's likely happening is that the younger chicks may have to wait until the older chicks are full before they can have part of the meal. In such a crowded nest, that might mean that the younger chicks don't get a part of every meal, but each chick is growing bigger, so it doesn't appear that any of them are being seriously deprived of food. Fortunately our father osprey continues to be a dependable and prolific provider.

In the recent Gallery update there were some interesting shots that I wanted to point out. We saw one cute photo showing the youngest with its mouth wide open making it clear that the chick wanted mom to feed it. We also saw a very interesting shot of the oldest chick trying to feed itself -- a sure sign that the oldest is growing stronger.

In a few photos we got a good look at the chicks' crops. As a reminder, a crop is a storage area near the chick's chest where food is held until the chick is ready to digest it. A full crop means the chick is getting fed, so it's always a good sign to see.

And we saw more photos of the chicks flapping their wings. This flapping practice will help prepare their muscles for their first flight, which normally comes at around seven to eight weeks of age.

In this photo, which I just received, we can see a chick relieving itself or "slicing" as falconers call it. The ospreys' anal muscles are very strong, and the chicks can easily clear the nest when they go.

In our most recent photos, it's been easier to spot the youngest chick because the older birds are developing their feathers and are losing the white stripes down their backs. On the "Citizens to Protect Maurice River" website, they have an osprey slide show where you can see how the chicks' stripes disappear as they begin to develop their feathers.

Once the chicks' feathers are more developed, they will look like this young osprey on Martin National Wildlife Refuge (which is managed by the Blackwater staff). Notice that the immature osprey has tan tips on its feathers -- this differs from an adult's solid brown feathers.

One concern at this point is the crowded nature of our nest. As the chicks continue to grow and begin flapping more, the young will have to be careful that they don't push a fellow sibling out of the nest. Fortunately our cam platform is rather large and provides a good bit of room, but the nest will undoubtedly get more congested as the chicks grow and become more active. At some point, the mother will likely take to sitting on the edges of the platform or perching on the platform's support arm, outside of our camera's view (as seen here in a 2004 photo) in order to give the chicks more room. The crowded nest might also mean that the father will spend more time perching in nearby trees rather than on the platform.

One of our cam watchers just sent me a link to a very interesting osprey slide show from a nest on our local Potomac River. One of the things you notice when looking at the photos is that this three-chick nest is already looking very crowded because the nest itself is not very large. In fact, it makes our platform look roomy. But it's good to see that these three chicks look healthy and active. [When viewing the slide show, I noticed that if you click the arrow on the far left, it will automatically scroll through the shots.]

Thanks again to our cam watchers for their photos, emails, and questions. And if we hear that the cam replacement will be delayed for any reason, I'll post a message on the cam page tomorrow. We appreciate your patience as we try to get a better cam in place -- one that will take us through the rest of the summer until the ospreys migrate sometime between late August and mid-September.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Four Chicks and Holding

Nest Update: I just wanted to post a quick web log entry this evening. I just returned from my vacation in Nags Head, North Carolina, so it will take a couple days for me to go through all our wonderful gallery submissions and post a Gallery update. Thanks to everyone for the photos over the last week.

I did want to mention our camera situation. First, we want to thank Scott Rogers and Philip Lyons of AAccurate Tree Service for helping us clean the cam. Although the lens condensation did return, we appreciate their efforts in helping us.

If anyone missed my mid-week post, Scott said after he went up that the youngest chick was about the size of his hand, and the oldest chick was about the size of a chicken.

After Scott’s visit, the condensation returned almost immediately, so we think we might have a leak in the water-tight camera housing. At this point, the image is not terrible, but it is not perfect – especially when the sun is not out. And it is especially problematic in the evening, when the infrared lights up the condensation and makes it very hard to see the nest. So we’re still discussing what to do. We may leave the camera as it is, and wait to see if it gets worse. Or we might go up and swap the camera for another one. We should know more by the end of the week.

At this stage, all four chicks look amazingly good. I’ve sent a note to our bookstore manager to ask if the staff and volunteers have noticed any increased aggression via the TV monitor at the Visitor Center. When I hear back, I’ll post a note. As the chicks’ appetites get bigger, there is the chance that they could become more aggressive towards each other because of food shortages. But we’ll wait and see if that is the case.

Also, some folks have asked about the eagles. We have seen some shots of the eaglets on the Eagle Cam nest, although the family does not spend much time there. It’s possible they are occasionally sitting in the branches of the nest tree and we cannot see them. But they are likely spending a good deal of time out and about as the eaglets learn to become independent hunters.

Also, something that I wanted to mention that relates to both our cams: As many of our cam watchers have noticed, the cams themselves seem to attract spiders. This is an issue we’ve had since the first year we went live with the Osprey Cam. The heat of the cam likely attracts the bugs, and they will weave a web over the lens. You can see an actual spider here on the Eagle Cam.

There is nothing we can really do about the spiders but tolerate them. Fortunately their webs are not visible during the day. As it is, neither eagles nor ospreys eat insects, so the bugs have nothing to fear from the raptors and will remain throughout most of the summer.

Thanks again to everyone who watched over the birds while I was away. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things with the osprey family now.

Also, I’m waiting to hear if the osprey chicks are visible from our Wildlife Drive. If they are, I plan to go out with my camcorder soon and get some video of them peeking out of the nest, then I’ll post the clips in the web log.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
(contact)

Crouching Video

Nest Update: Before we talk about our osprey family, I wanted to mention a couple website matters. First, please note that I've made the final entry in the Eagle Cam Web Log for this season. Be sure to read the entry as I talk briefly about the issue of streaming video on this site, and I also offer a couple amazing bald eagle wallpaper images for you to download.

Also, starting Friday June 9, I will be on vacation for one week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I'll be returning on June 17. Throughout the week, I will be checking my email and checking in on the ospreys, but the gallery and web log updates will wait until I return. If you have gallery photos to submit during next week, feel free to send them as usual.

And now onto the osprey family. Our bookstore manager -- who works near the TV monitor at the Visitor Center -- reported yesterday that the youngest (whom she calls "Bitsy") got so much to eat from dad's big fish delivery, that his little stomach was round as a ball. In fact, all the chicks were so full, that the mother had to finish off the meal.

And speaking of food, there was one interesting moment that I forgot to mention in the last web log regarding my Sunday visit to the Osprey Cam monitor: Right before I got the VCR running to tape the video feed, an unfamiliar adult osprey landed on the cam platform while the mother was sitting there with a meal. The mother immediately recognized that it was not the father and quickly chased it off; in fact the stranger barely had time to land before it was taking off again. As soon as it left, the father osprey returned.

Sometimes a single osprey will "visit" a couple's nest. This stranger might have just been attracted to the meal, but sometimes adult ospreys want more than that -- such as to challenge one of the parents for their nest or mate -- so the mother was right in quickly shooing away the intruder.

And I have one final video that I wanted to share from my Sunday outing. The video offers an excellent look at the "crouching" behavior that the chicks exhibit when a parent sounds an alarm or when there is a threat near the nest. (Right-click on this link to download the video -- it's a 13.5 MB Windows Media Player file).

During the beginning of the video, the mother is feeding the chicks and the father is looking at something below the platform. The reason the father is looking down is that under our tall cam platform is a pond area where turtles, fish, and birds hang out. In fact, sometimes fish jump and splash in the water there.

Suddenly the parents hear something that makes them both look up and back toward the Visitor Center. If you look in the lower left corner of the video, you can also see a bird quickly fly away -- possibly the same creature that the father osprey was watching from above. Apparently this bird was startled by the noise too.

At the same time that all of this is happening, the chicks immediately fold in their wings and lay their heads flat on the nest. With the white stripes on their backs, the osprey chicks look like just a bunch of sticks in the nest when they crouch this way.

After it's clear that there is no immediate threat, the chicks begin to move again. The youngest is the first to raise its head, and it manages to sneak in a couple extra bites from mom, who starts feeding him again before the other birds sit up.

Unlike bald eagles, ospreys prefer to nest in open areas, as the parents like to be able to see all of the sky around them. While this preference helps them see a possible aerial attack, it also means that the chicks are more exposed because the top of the nest is so visible. The white stripe on the chicks' backs is nature's way of helping them blend into the nest when they crouch and lie still. There have certainly been times when this behavior has saved an osprey chick from becoming another bird's next meal.

A couple final notes: I wanted to thank all the cam watchers who wrote in to say how much they enjoyed the videos. Since they were such a big hit, we'll definitely offer more of them this season, as well as next season when the eagles return.

Also, thanks to all those who sent in their photos for our recent Gallery update. When looking at the photos, you can really see how much the chicks have changed in a short period of time. Also, I noticed we had another pair of shots showing the father helping with the feeding.

And on a final eagle note: Last year, we offered some help to the National Conservation Training Center in setting up their first Eagle Cam. The NCTC is the main training facility for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and they have a beautiful campus in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Their nest currently has three eaglets that are just starting to fly, and they've posted a great video showing the oldest eaglet taking his first flight. Be sure to check it out.

Until June 17,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Osprey Cam Videos

Nest Update: On Sunday, I packed up my VCR and headed out to the Blackwater Refuge Visitor Center where we have a TV monitor that broadcasts video from the Osprey Cam. My aim was to capture some video clips for our cam watchers so they could get a sense of what the family looks like in moving images.

It was a very productive day, and just by observing the family for a short time, I was able to get some insights into the family dynamics. The biggest news is that our father osprey is indeed doing some beak-feeding to the chicks. Several cam watchers had been looking out for evidence that the dad was feeding the young, and they had sent in a couple shots that looked interesting. I still did not think he was feeding them because we couldn't see food in the shots. But today while watching the video, I was able to see the father fly in with the food and then -- before the mother took the fish away -- pass off a couple pieces to the oldest chick. So our father osprey has another skill -- he is now a beak-feeder.

As for the chicks, the oldest is clearly in charge and dominates the nest, but the most interesting insight I had was that he picks on the second and third chicks more than he really does the smallest. Maybe it's because the smallest is so tiny that he does not pose much of a threat at this time. But the second and third chicks clearly get pecked the most and often assume a subordinate posture at meal time -- sometimes even before they're pecked.

None of the fighting that I saw was life-threatening though. Mostly snapping, beak grabbing, pecking, pushing, and general action that is common in a nest filled with raptor young that must fight to establish their position in the nest hierarchy. But even with the bullying by the oldest, the second and third chicks must be getting enough food because they looked very healthy.

Besides being bigger, the older chicks are also darker now as they reach their two-week birthdays. The buff-colored plumage that the chicks were born with is being replaced with a dense, wooly down. Osprey expert Alan Poole calls this wooly period their "reptilian stage," when "they are black, scaly, and often crouch at danger, reminiscent of their reptilian ancestors." This second down covering will last another 10-15 days. If you visit the osprey slide show posted by the Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River, you can see the reptilian stage up close.

I have posted four videos from our Osprey Cam; these were captured on Sunday and they can be played with the Windows Media Player. I tried to keep the file sizes small, but because there is moving action in the clips, the file sizes are still a bit large. Right-click on the links below and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to download the clips to your computer. They will play better if you download them directly.

The first video (14 MB) shows the mother osprey returning to the nest with a stick. Right after she arrives, the father returns to the nest with a small fish. The oldest and youngest chicks are near him (the second and third chicks hang back) and the father somewhat hesitantly hands off a couple pieces to the oldest.

In the second video (13 MB), which immediately follows the first, the mother osprey takes the fish away from the father and proceeds to feed the oldest and youngest chicks. Again, it's interesting that the oldest lets the youngest sit beside him and get fed.

In the third video (8.5 MB), the youngest chick and a sibling start a fight that turns into a rumble, which ends with the oldest chick putting the two middle chicks in their places. I did see the oldest peck the youngest (not in this shot), but again the oldest seems to spend more time working on the middle chicks.

And in the fourth video (7 MB), the youngest takes a peck at a middle chick then promptly falls onto his back and lays there like a turtle that's been flipped and pinned to the ground. After laying there a bit, the youngest then struggles to right himself.

Because the youngest is so small, he often gets stuck under a bigger sibling's body or wings. Since he is just over a week old, he is still not very strong, but seems to hold up fine despite all the physical action in the nest.

All in all, the family looks good. The parents work well together and the chicks look like normal, active young. If the parents can keep the food coming, all these young just might have a shot.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)