Rebuilding The Nest
In just three days, Oliver and Olivia have made great progress in rebuilding their home. The first photo was taken early Sunday morning of the pair hanging out together before a day of hard work. This is a good shot to show again the size difference between Oliver (left) and Olivia (right) and notice the nest’s condition at that time.
An hour later, the day’s work begins….
Olivia takes a break to stretch….
By late afternoon, the nest was showing improvement.
Oliver brings in a late-afternoon snack for Olivia.
And she decided to take it somewhere else to eat. I guess she didn’t want to share.
The next photo is for fun. With the naked eye, I could tell something looked a little weird on the nest. Oliver looked way out of proportion….or did he grow? 🙂 (Olivia is behind him.)
Back to work, this time Oliver brought in a clump of grassy-like material for the floor of the nest and decides to move a stick.
While Oliver works in that stick, Olivia takes flight to retrieve a stick in the water she had been eyeing from the nest.
It’s now 7:00 pm Sunday and work is still going on. Olivia messed around with this rooted stick for some time.
For some reason, she did not like the root part! She broke it off and took flight I assume to discard it. (She didn’t bring it back!)
As the sun was beginning to set, Oliver brings one more stick before he and Olivia flew down to Lipincott’s channel marker for an evening’s well-deserved rest.
Monday was a stormy dreary day. When I left that morning, it was hailing as a thunderstorm was descending upon us. As I left, I saw one of our pair on the nest hunched over. Not a good day for home rebuilding. But today was! When arriving home tonight, I took the following photo. Olivia is sitting pretty on a much improved nest that has now been adorned with a plastic bag. Hopefully, they can work that bag down tight in the nest so neither of them or any chicks get their talons hooked into it and become entangled.
Plastic and fishing line are very hazardous to the osprey. Last year, the following photo shows Oliver during a scary moment with a plastic bag that had became entangled around his neck!
It could have been deadly for Oliver had he gotten in the water and the bag filled. After 30 minutes of me worrying and looking for Oliver with binoculars, he came cruising back to the nest with no bag. I bet Oliver was relieved, I know I was!
Back to today’s hard work, the next long series of photos show Oliver bringing in another stick in an awkward way. As he tries to make his way down to the nest, Olivia is forced out of the way even though she’s not making eye contact with Oliver or the stick….until those last couple frames. Hmmmmm…..she says a few words, and takes flight. Wonder what she said??!!
As the sun was setting, the pair enjoyed a quiet rest. Oliver has discovered the little piece of wood jetting up from the platform and will perch on it while keeping an eye on the surroundings.
How about that nest??!! Oliver and Olivia have been quite busy. And their activeness makes for great photo shots. I hope I didn’t overload you on photos this time, I had some cool ones I wanted to share. And I love seeing and showing their expressions!
Unfortunately, I will be out of town Thursday through Sunday/Monday and won’t be around to track our osprey. 🙁 I’ll be back online as soon as I can to enlighten you a little more with the life of Oliver and Olivia. Have a great weekend!
