Was It Dad Oliver This Morning?
Up until this morning, our nest has appeared to remain empty and quiet as I continued to keep an eye on it, along with a few community neighbors. However, this morning at 6:45 a.m., I heard an osprey calling loudly and glanced out at the nest to see an osprey perched on it. He stopped calling for a bit, and just kept looking around the area. He didn’t seem to mind me as I was quickly moving around on my balcony trying to defog my lens and capture a clear shot of him. Another osprey appeared up over to the left of the nest, and the perched osprey started a threatening chirp loudly, causing the flying osprey to leave. He remained on the nest for 15 minutes before flying off and out of sight.
Was this our dad Oliver? Was he visiting and then protecting his nest? I’ve pulled up several shots of Oliver from this past season and I cannot confirm it was him because this mornings’ shots were not clear enough to see detail. 🙁 This evening, I sighted no visitors to the nest. But maybe it was Oliver this morning and he’s visiting several times during the day while I’m away. Neighbor Lu reported she did see a young osprey on Lipincott’s Marker 5 last Sunday, crying out for food or his mama. Maybe one of our chicks or one from a neighboring osprey nest? Wish we knew!
But I did get to enjoy watching constant action at my hummingbird feeder. I must be sweetening the liquid just perfect, as they are emptying 8 oz. worth every 3 days. Here’s some of this evening’s photos while I watched and hoped for our osprey family to show up.
I accidentally hit my flash button and it went off on the next shot. It startled both him and me!
This past Tuesday evening during a boat ride, I took of a few photos of osprey who reside on the Kent Narrows channel markers, protecting their nests and keeping their eye on us as we passed slowly by.
As for our osprey family, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that they will soon return from their extended vacation. Lisa at BWNR asked I keep in touch on the long-term absence, I will contact her again to see what her thoughts are now. It just seems odd that they would leave a nest they have possessed and protected year after year, plus it seems fish are abundant here as I watch them jump here and there in the water as well as watching other osprey fish successfully here. Where are they? I’ll let you know what more behavior info I can find out!
