April 24, 2007
Nest Update & Other Cams
We wanted to give a general update on our osprey nest. We've been seeing the occasional photo showing our couple mating, which is a good sign. Also the ospreys have been adding a few sticks to the nest and have been eating some meals there, so it's clear they haven't given up on nesting season. For now, we're just watching and waiting for another egg or two. At this point there's no reason to think that the ospreys will go without a family this year.
And in case you missed my posting on the cam page, here is a photo that Tom Lorsung captured on the day I took the videos showing our three ospreys fighting over the cam platform. This was the day we lost the one egg. Thanks to Tom for this interesting shot.
Other Osprey Nests:
To make our cam watchers feel a little better, I can say that we're not the only osprey nest having high drama this year. Our friend Russ Yeaton, who follows an osprey nest at Spring Point, in South Portland, Maine, reports that he has seen five ospreys vying for his nest; that makes the fighting here between our three ospreys seem tame in comparison. Here are two photos from Russ showing some of the action -- photo 1 and photo 2.
And at the famous osprey nest at Loch Garten in Scotland there is high drama again with the resident pair of Henry and EJ. For those of you who have not followed the Loch Garten nest, the action there often reads like an osprey soap opera. The root of the problem is that Henry often returns late from migration. Since he's late showing up, his normal mate EJ sometimes hooks up with a competing male called Orange VS. In 2005 this extramarital mating happened, and Henry returned to find eggs in the nest, so knowing they were not his, he promptly kicked them out. This year they had the same thing happen again. Henry showed up late a few days ago and found two eggs in the nest, which he kicked right out. Then EJ performed a minor miracle and today laid two eggs in two hours. Was Henry impressed with this amazing feat even though they were not likely his? Not at all. After EJ went to eat, Henry tossed out the two new eggs as well. In total, Henry has dumped eight eggs onto the ground. And so the folks at Loch Garten are left waiting to see if EJ can produce some new eggs now -- this time with the ever-colorful Henry.
I also wanted to point out some other interesting osprey cams that are seeing egg action at this time. Below are several cams worth checking out:
Dennis Puleston Osprey Cam, NY
Connecticut Audubon Osprey Cam
Woods Hole, MA Osprey Cam
Kentucky Osprey Cam
Wilmington, NC Osprey Cam
The Connecticut nest -- where they have four eggs now -- is another locale with a quirky pair. Last year, the pair on this nest brought in a very blue teddy bear that stayed there for all of the nesting season. This year the bear was gone, so the pair went out and brought in pieces of plastic or cloth that were nearly identical to the color of the bear. Someone needs to do a study on why these ospreys love this color so much. :-)
Other Birds:
I also wanted to share a couple other bird items that cam watchers have recently sent me. First, cam watcher Diane Morris sent me this beautiful photo that she took of baby cardinals near her house. This photo was taken in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 22. Much thanks to Diane for sharing a scene that we don't often get to witness.
Also, our refuge photographer Bob Quinn recently captured an amazing sequence of shots showing a Great blue heron catching and eating a large fish (likely a carp) at the Refuge. The fish put up a battle and almost got away. I turned Bob's shots into a movie, which you can see here. Just left-click on the link below to play or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download:
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Also, if you didn't see my earlier post, be sure to see Bob's new shots from the Pickering Creek Audubon Center on the Eastern Shore in his Gallery. Much thanks to Bob again for sharing his wonderful work with us.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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