Ollie Is One Fantastic Provider!
Wow, Ollie is one fantastic provider! I’ve seen him deliver a fish to an awaiting chick three times since my last post on Saturday. Here’s a photo sequence of a noon fish delivery on Sunday. The “white line” off the chick’s wing is one of his feathers that got stuck up from his flapping excitement when dad was approaching. Of course, Ollie took a quick flight immediately. He sure is fast!
I’ve kept notes but mostly took photos for diary reference (date/time) whenever I’ve seen an osprey on the nest these last few weeks. I have been going through my photos from the last week and was able to determine by different markings on each that it appears we still have both chicks visiting the nest, I’m guessing looking for dad and a fish delivery.
If you are interested in reading a book on osprey, I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed Return of the Osprey written by David Gessner. David follows an entire season of four osprey nests around his home in Cape Cod and also recounts his own life of readjustments and discoveries. In addition, he gives an excellent history narrative on how DDT used back in the late 1950’s to 1970’s all but wiped out the osprey and their strong comeback today. The book is available at Blackwater NWR’s online store or most other book stores. David Gessner also has a website www.ospreyworld.com. David has published a second osprey book, Soaring With Fidel, that I hope to start reading in a few weeks! And next on my list to buy is Alan Poole’s Osprey: A Natural and Unnatural History (Cambridge U. Press 1989). It is the best osprey fact book from over ten years of his expert studies. I hope to learn as much as possible to pass on to you during next year’s full season of our osprey family. We will all become osprey ‘experts’! Or at least may know more than most people…. 🙂
Shortly after a chick left the nest, I was surprised to see a blue heron visiting below the nest. He didn’t stay long, but wow, he was brave!
Finally, a few photos of a baby bird that landed on our deck chair. I think it is a mocking bird but I am not sure. He didn’t mind “posing” for me, he actually started chirping at me and would open his mouth wide. He was so cute, I couldn’t resist passing on to you to enjoy too!
Have a great Labor Day weekend and let’s hope Hurricane Earl stays far away from us!
Ollie and The Chicks Are Still Around
It’s been a week of seeing only short visits from our osprey dad and chicks. With their migration journey fast approaching, our chicks are most likely out exploring beyond their normal flight areas as they feel the tug that calls them south. With the nest becoming less of a magnet to them, we are having a lot of seagulls stopping to search for any fish morsels. Ollie is still around being the dutiful dad, I spotted him twice this past week dropping a fish to an awaiting chick. Here’s a photo of him flying by me after one fish drop-off.
A third time was quite different and I still find it a bit odd. I had been enjoying the view although our nest was empty. I had taken a 10 minute break and when I returned, Ollie was on the nest along with a paper bag (from McDonald’s?). He wasn’t messing with the bag, just looking around and then took flight. His take-off ‘blew’ the bag off the nest and into the water where it sank after becoming saturated. The other plastic items were in the nest earlier. Did he bring it for nesting material?
Our chicks have learned fast to be the fierce raptor that is their species. These past couple weeks they vocalized at everything in their view that had eyes and movement. If you got too close, they screamed louder and took on a combative stance. The osprey chicks over on the Kent Narrows marker did a lot of soaring over our nest one afternoon and at one time tried to land on our nest, here’s a photo sequence. Our chick does a victory dance at the end!
Not only are the seagulls visiting the nest, I’ve seen blue heron a couple times fishing down on the rocks’ edge, not too far from the nest. They wouldn’t get that opportunity if our osprey were present. My July 13th post recalls one such dog-fight between Olivia and a blue heron that ventured too close to her liking. Here’s a visiting blue heron from this week. He didn’t catch a fish but he was pretty to watch!
I will keep my eye out for our last weeks’ sightings before our osprey begin their journey south.
Olivia’s Journey South Has Begun
I haven’t seen mom Olivia now for over a week and a half. Since this past Monday, seagulls are perching both mornings and evenings on Lippincott’s channel marker; and I don’t believe Olivia would allow that, that perch being hers all season. So it appears that Olivia has begun her 3,000+ mile/up to 5-week journey to South America where most opsrey from North America migrate. We wish her luck and hope she is able to handle the hazards she will face. We will look forward to her safe return in March!
Ollie is continuing to be the dutiful-dad, watching over and caring for the chicks. This week I’ve seen him bring sticks twice to the nest and work them in, as well as more headless fish to an awaiting, hungry chick. (He enjoys snacking on that head every time before he delivers!)
It was exciting to finally see a chick bring a self-caught fish to the nest. While eating on the edge of the nest, the chick dropped a piece of fish down into the sticks on the side.
Not able to reach it easily, our chick gave up and continued to eat, there was still plenty. Something caused the chick to get nervous and so she took flight with the fish and flew out of sight. About 30 minutes later, we had a seagull on our osprey nest, most definitely interested in that fish morsel that fell down the side. It was comical watching him try to get to it for several minutes, without falling off. His hard efforts proved successful. After swallowing it, he perched upright and called out his success to the sky.
Here are a few more photos of our osprey chicks from this past week.
Finally, another comical-looking photo I missed uploading last week I thought was cute. The ‘kick’ did work, the other chick took flight….but only to return back to the nest and get his spot back!
Eating and Fishing
We are still having some activity here and there at the nest, mostly the chicks. One morning this past week, one was hanging out at the nest and caught sight of the school of small fish surfacing in the water below. He took flight three different times and dove down towards them. Here’s the third time, note how the talons and legs are extended, then the chick brings the legs forward to try and snag a fish. The force and even the water spray is impressive!
To show again the legs and talons extended, here’s two more photos from the first dive.
The chick was unsuccessful each of the times so a rest and talon cleaning were in order.
I’ve seen Ollie twice this week, a couple mornings ago he brought a stick to the nest, with a chick landing shortly thereafter appearing to have expected a fish. He made a lot of begging cries but Ollie was too busy working on the nest.
Ollie stopped by again yesterday morning with a headless fish. He patiently waited, made a few low calls, upon which a chick appeared within minutes. In the following photos you can see how aggressive the female chick is taking the fish from her dad (note the chick is larger than her dad which is a sign this chick is female). Ollie willingly passes the fish and then leaves to skim and wash his talons.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Olivia. If anyone within the community possibly sights her, let me know. For identification, her chest is speckled brown whereas Ollie’s is mostly white with only slight speckling. Thank you!
Our Family’s Upcoming Migration
Even though our osprey family are scarce on their nest, I have seen the chicks do an occasion drop-by for a visit and rest or to eat their dinner. I still have not witnessed a chick bringing a fish to the nest; but by this time, they should be mastering their fishing skills to perfection. Here’s one of the chicks leaving the nest with his dinner, he had been watching the sky while hovering over his fish and must have felt threatened by something.
I have seen either Ollie or Olivia several times roosting in a tree across at CBEC. With the haze, I couldn’t get a clear enough view each time to confirm which it was but I haven’t seen them both together perched. As is the usual pattern, the migration instinct will soon draw Olivia any day now in these next few weeks to leave her family and us to migrate south for the winter. Ollie will hang around to oversee the final 3-4 weeks of the chicks’ lives, making sure they have their necessary survival skills and their migration instincts kick in. Once our final chick leaves for migration in September, Ollie will begin his own journey. Please check out Lisa at Friends of Blackwater’s recent blog where she discusses the osprey migration in further detail.
Lisa also discusses the perils of plastic and trash to the osprey, and featured a picture I had sent her of our Ollie when he had a major entanglement with a plastic shopping bag that had been brought as nesting material on April 6 of this year. I watched him for several minutes as he fought to get the bag handle off his neck. Unsuccessful, Ollie took flight, circled around, landing back on the nest, and then off again to the sky and out of my sight. Here are a few photos, sorry they aren’t too clear.
I will admit I panicked, I didn’t know what to do (except scream for my husband!). I just stood and watched in horror as he flew away. I waited (and said a couple little prayers) for over a half hour when out of the sky Ollie came cruising back to the nest bag-free! Thankfully!! He remained at the nest for awhile, I imagine for a much deserved rest from all the turmoil.
Here’s a cute photo from a couple days ago of one of our chicks on the nest, who I was sure was going to fall off or the branch break! LOL But she didn’t….. 🙂
This morning, I happen to see one of the parents land on the nest and immediately both chicks were in the area and descending onto their nest as well. I was not able to distinguish which parent was there, but he/she took back off when the chicks landed, as if there was no space with all the wings flapping and excitement landing. A fish was not brought to the nest. Here’s a photo of our two chicks after the parent flew off and over to CBEC. For a little comparison, I followed that photo with two photos back from May 29 & 30 when our chicks were oh-so tiny and fragile. Can you believe how much they have grown?! It is amazing!!
Finally, a quick note, Lisa at Blackwater did review many photos I sent of our chicks alongside the parents to try and guess the chicks’ genders. It was very difficult and I’m not sure we were clearly able to guess, but it appears we may have at least one female and one male each or both could be female. No matter, we love them both!
August Is Here
Temps have been more comfortable this past week, although still hot. And our osprey family continue to delight with just their everyday life activities. While on the nest whether they are sitting alone quietly, or eating a brought fish, or someone approaches on the walkway, or an intruder appears in the sky, their strength and resilience proves to be fascinating.
One of the chicks was trying to enjoy a fish and yet didn’t seem comfortable. He quickly took flight with his dinner. 
Another evening, a chick was preparing to eat a really small fish. I didn’t see the chick land on the nest or how the fish arrived, but I’m wondering if it was a catch of his one. I haven’t seen either parent bring a fish so small.
It’s hard to say exactly when they begin to fish for themselves, each one is different, but maybe we’re seeing one of the their first successes! It is a fact that the parents will begin to feed the chicks less often to encourage their instinct to fish and feed themselves. A couple evenings ago, a chick was quite loud calling and looking over to the marker where a parent and the other chick were resting. That chick was also crying loudly, yet the parent just sat there and continued to ignore either one of them. Maybe the parent was trying to encourage that instinct?
Finally here’s another interesting photo of a chick standing on one leg. I’ve seen all of them do this at times while resting. The first time I remember seeing Olivia doing this last year for a real long time and I actually worried she had lost her leg. An adult osprey weighs approximately four pounds but I guess that little weight tires their legs too!
Dinner’s Ready!
This week continued with crazy weather. When it’s just too hot, we see an empty nest. But the brief periods in early morning and late evening brings our osprey family back to the nest for some very brief home-visits. I did get a clearer photo of one of their roosting trees over at CBEC, but only one of our adults was present at the time.
Mom Olivia continues to care for her chicks, even when she’s not so sure where they are. I watched her for quite some time on her channel marker Tuesday afternoon, calling out that dinner was ready, but I didn’t witness any chicks arriving. In the second photo, she looks back to make sure that fish is still there! Now where are those kids?! 🙂
That evening, Olivia did meet up with both chicks on the nest with dinner and proceeded to feed one of them. In the past couple weeks, the chicks have been feeding themselves while Olivia looked on. So maybe she was showing some motherly love and care! She was just as patient with the feeding as if it were the first time. Although the second chick kept her eye on the feeding, she never interrupted.
I said ‘she’ for the second chick if anyone picked up on that! 🙂 I’ve accumulated a few shots from the last couple weeks to send to Lisa at Friends of Blackwater Refuge to help determine if our chicks are male or female (based on size). A female chick should be about the same size as the mother at this point, while a male chick would show to be smaller than his mother. In the above photo, the far left chick definitely appears to be the same size as Olivia. It’s harder to tell in this photo about the chick feeding because he/she is hunched over and not upright. Both our chicks are pretty much full grown now in size so hopefully the recent photos will help determine. Here’s one I took yesterday where they both look very close to same size.
So do we have two females or maybe one of each?? Hopefully in my next blog we’ll have an answer! By the way, two of Blackwater Refuge’s three chicks on the cam have recently fledged. And at the Chestertown osprey cam, I believe one of the two have fledged. Since no one blogs on the Chestertown nest, I am not 100% positive but I believe I saw only one chick on their nest, hopefully the other wasn’t up under the cam hiding!
Finally this morning, I saw Olivia land on the nest with a nice-size fish. As she did at the channel marker, she called out continuously, alerting that dinner was ready. After 20 minutes with no one showing, she took flight with the fish, possibly to find a quiet spot to enjoy it all to herself this time!
I bet Olivia enjoyed it!
Where Did Our Osprey Family Go?
We thought it couldn’t get any hotter but it has. So hot we haven’t seen much of our osprey family on the nest. But I have located one of their roosts, a nice shady tree over at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. With the haze and the distance, I haven’t been able to get a clear photo but I’ve watched them a few times with binoculars. Of course, they still fave Lippincott’s channel marker. Yesterday, a seagull was perched on the marker, and one of the osprey flew from the trees and chased him off and took his place. Yes, that marker is theirs!
Late this afternoon, we had a wicked thunderstorm. After it cleared, I found a chick on the marker and a parent brought him a fish to eat there. So we know two of our family are okay! The osprey families at Blackwater Rufuge and at the Chestertown cam both made through the storms fine too. It is amazing how resilient the osprey are.
A few days ago, I did see one of the chicks come to the nest and dad Ollie followed soon after with a fish. Ollie did as usual, he landed, released the headless fish, and took off. As our chick enjoyed his meal, someone approached on the walk-way which caused the chick to get quite vocal. He then took flight with his dinner and flew towards me. He came to my left and then flew in front of me, all the while keeping his eye on me. He was definitely checking me out….
The weather reports are calling for lower temps and lower humidity for the coming week so maybe our osprey family will be seen more around and on their nest. Since there may be less sightings to photograph, I will be starting up a photo gallery page of more osprey photos from the past as well as other waterfowl and wildlife favorites of mine. Here’s a cormorant roosting quietly on the piling at Mears Point Marina the other night. Sometimes called diving ducks, they get up to 32″ tall and feed on fish.
Now Those Chicks Are Vocal!
Thankfully, our osprey family has survived these last few days of severe storms, and both parents have been seen rebuilding and adding to the nest to keep it strong.
Has anyone walked by our osprey nest and noticed how much more vocal our chicks are now? Parents Olivia and Ollie don’t seem to mind too much of walkers or boats passing by, but the chicks just don’t like it! They have become quite protective of their nest now; which is great, they do need to show their aggressiveness for territory and personal protection. They even let me know if they don’t like me taking their picture or watching them through binoculars! No wonder, their eyesight is 3-5 times greater than a humans.
A couple nights ago at dusk I captured the entire family on Lippincott’s channel marker…..hmmmmm a nice large strong nest and all four are crowded on that one marker just hanging out. I thought it was a bit comical!
Here’s a photo of one of the chicks landing on one of our community’s chimneys. I’ve seen them land on this one chimney several times in the last week; but there’s another osprey family on a Kent Narrows channel marker and one of them usually chases the chick away. I guess that other family considers that chimney and roof their territory. Our chick high-tails it back to his nest every time!
We haven’t witnessed any of the chicks bringing any fish to the nest themselves yet. But they are practicing beautiful aerials with direct dives downward and then swooping back up before hitting the water. It won’t be long before they bring home their own first catch! Here’s a photo of dad Ollie bringing in a fish for one of the chicks. If you can tell, notice the fish’s head is missing. I’ve read that the parent will at times eat the fish’s head while enroute back to the nest before passing it on to the family. Ollie has consistently done this, but I’ve noticed Olivia consistently brings a full fish.
Once Ollie dropped the fish to the chick, he took back off and did a sweep of the water. Probably washing his feet of that stinky fish! 🙂 LOL
Finally, I thought this was nice. We had a momma mallard duck and her 15 ducklings swim across to our grassy area under the osprey nest from Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center, spend 15 minutes hiding in the flowers, and then she quacked them back over the berm and into the water for the long swim back to CBEC. Those poor little ducklings had a rough time climbing up and down the berm rocks, but they all made it! Here’s their family photo…
Let’s Go Diving!
The humidity has risen again with temps in the mid to upper 90’s and the heat indexes registering over 100 degrees in our area. Our osprey chicks continue to immerse themselves in the water below the nest to stay cool as well as learn the skill of diving. Can’t blame them!! Two nights ago, I got a nice photo of one of the chicks who left the nest and flew down to the rock berm below.
After a few minutes, he flew directly to the water and dropped in for a quick cool-off and flew back up to the nest.
Last night, I noticed the two chicks standing on the nest’s edge peering down to the water. With a blink of an eye, one chick jumped and dove straight down to the water with such a force. Just as quickly, he lifted back up and landed on the nest. He did this four more times, it was captivating to watch. I put together a short sequence of one of the dives.
What strength the chicks have attained since fledging less than two weeks ago! Finally, tonight I got some shots of mom Olivia bringing in a fish to one of the chicks.
What ensued thereafter was something! The following photos show the chick almost attacking the fish trying to take it from Olivia, but he caught her foot by accident. Notice in the last two photos how the chick bowed down and away from glaring Olivia. Once the chick stayed calm and looking away, Olivia dropped the fish and took off the nest.
I bet the chick doesn’t do that again! 🙂
Bay Photos by Donna 