Olivia and Blue Heron ‘Dog Fight’
The chicks are still out and about, their wings getting stronger each day. They continue to use the rocks below the nest as resting points, maybe more swims, it must feel safe to them down there and they can cool off easily. We don’t see much of dad Ollie, but I did capture him perched with Olivia on Lippincott’s channel marker, so we know he’s still around. He’s probably real busy trying to keep food in the nest. It was nice to see them together again! What great parents they have been!!
If you’re able to watch them, you’ll see the chicks are pretty much feeding themselves each time now. Mom Olivia just watches them and the skies around for protection. Before we know it, they will be bringing their own catches to the nest!
Speaking of protection, Olivia is still quite ardent that no one comes around her nest and territory. Did anyone in the community see yesterday morning, when a blue heron came way too close to Olivia’s liking and she took off after him. Here are a few sequence photos of the ‘dog fight’ they ensued. Olivia did get a strike on the blue heron who went down to the water. Both birds continued to try and attack each other before the blue heron took a turn to the south and away from her area.
Shortly after, another adult osprey came by, and Olivia took off after him too. He didn’t waste any time getting out of her area.
Good job, Olivia!! Finally, for fun I took the following photo of the latest ‘accessory’ to make it into our nest this morning. Yesterday, there was a piece of blue fabric but it’s either been removed or worked into the nest.
As The Song Goes — It’s HOT HOT HOT!
With not much reprieve from the heat and humidity, I’m thankful our osprey chicks have fledged so they can cool off better while flying. This morning’s steady thundershower is certainly helping. Not sure what was up in the sky this morning, our chicks kept looking up for quite a while, thought it was cute. (the streaks is rain…) Mom Olivia doesn’t seem to care.
Both chicks are constantly in the air now, strengthening their wings and you can see just enjoying themselves! In addition, they are learning about the water that surrounds them. One of the chicks left the nest and circled around it going lower and lower to the water. He then landed on a rock under the nest.
He rested a bit, then flew up and around and around, eventually landing back down on a different rock underneath the nest. Mom Olivia and his sibling watched him and then she left the nest to go perch on the channel marker. It was going on low tide when the berm becomes visible and pools some of the tidal water. Our chick surveyed the water and then proceeded to step into the shallow pool. Here are a sequence of photos showing him going for a swim! After which he spread his wings and floated for a few minutes. You know that felt good with all this heat.
When he pulled up and out of the water from floating, our chick had difficulty getting airborne and had to land on another rock on the other side of the nest. He stayed on that rock for quite some time, opening and closing his wings. The distress calls he made were quite different than usual. Mom Olivia did not leave her perch on the channel marker.
However, our second chick who was up in the nest returned calls and seemed concerned for his sibling. I thought he was going to fall off the nest trying to see below!
Our chick eventually took flight and had no difficulty this time. He did go directly to the nest and land, but it wasn’t long before he was off again as well as the other chick.
Another observation I want to mention is the chicks are now doing some self-feeding while Olivia watches or there is no parent present on the nest. I’ve seen some sibling rivalry on each not sharing their piece if the other’s is gone.
Finally, if you are not a web visitor of Friends of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge’s site, check out their website (link to the right) and webcam of their osprey family with three chicks. Lisa, the webmaster, gives awesome information in their blog as well as facts, photos, videos, and more. (She even featured our OC family in her latest blog, I’m tickled, thank you Lisa!) Be sure to check out the nifty pop-up cam feature, it is fantastic! They have an eagle page as well which is most active when the osprey migrate. I have emailed Lisa this year with many Q&A’s and she has helped me learn and understand more about our OC osprey family. I’ve been wondering how to tell the gender of our chicks and Lisa has discussed this in detail in her latest blog, be sure to read it if interested. I’m thinking we do have a female chick for sure, but I’m not sure on our second one, I’ve been leaning towards male. I will send Lisa some photos to see if she can determine for sure what our chicks’ genders are. Then I can correctly say ‘he or she’! Visiting the refuge is awesome too, the beauty and wildlife there is year round. And it’s so close for our community to visit!
One more site our neighbor Patti sent me, it is a live-feed webcam in Chestertown (also not too far from us) on an osprey family with two chicks. I love this one too! If you love osprey, these local cams are a treat. Their link is to the right.
Our Second Chick Has Fledged!
I received information yesterday that our osprey parents were named by a group of neighbors of mine three years ago. (Thanks for letting me know, CJ!) The mother osprey is Olivia and the father is Oliver (Ollie). So from this point forward I will use their names in my posts. 🙂
At dawn this morning, I checked our osprey nest and found mom Olivia feeding a single chick. The other chick wasn’t in sight, but I could just imagine him soaring our area. After the feeding, Olivia took flight, and the single chick followed her. I couldn’t believe it! And, of course, I was wasn’t prepared with my camera. I lost sight of the chick but Olivia perched herself again on Lippincott’s entrance channel marker just as yesterday and watched from there. Shortly thereafter, she took flight and disappeared. When I checked again 15 minutes later, the chick was just landing back on the nest and mom Olivia was coming in right behind. Here’s Olivia landing with a small fish for our successful second chick, what a great reward!
And then she proceeded to feed her chick. She has such patience!
Now that both chicks have fledged, they will work on improving their flying and landing skills and begin to learn on how catch their own fish. For now, they will still depend on Olivia and Ollie to bring fish to the nest, which will continue to be their home-base until they migrate in September.
Again, while waiting and watching, this seagull happen to fly by with his breakfast catch…
Although there will be less activity at the nest as weeks go on, I will keep us up-to-date on my sightings, in addition to posting past photos of our osprey family as well as other waterfowl photos of mine.
A Chick Has Fledged!
What an awesome morning! While I was sipping coffee and watching our nest at dawn before heading out to work, the chicks were up and practicing their flapping and lift-offs. Here’s a three-photo sequence.
As I was watching through my binoculars, our first chick fledging occurred! The mother osprey took flight first from the nest, and the chick followed. I think my neighbors heard me whooping it up! “Go chick go!” I grabbed my camera and here’s my first photos of the fledging.
Isn’t he/she gorgeous! Our chick flew around and around, he looked so proud of himself. After a few minutes, he disappeared overhead to our roof and looked like he was going to land there. Last year the chicks actually used the roofs for landings while improving their flight skills, maybe because of the large area to land. The second chick watched and then called out continuously. He looked all lonely by himself. Not to be outdone, he started practicing.
I imagine the second one is not too far behind taking his first flight as well. Unfortunately, I did not see our fledging chick return to the nest but it sounded like he was on a roof responding to the second chick’s chirps. He probably needed a rest from all the excitement. Now he needs to figure out how to land back on that nest!
A couple more photos, the following two are from yesterday. It reached over 100 degrees and there was absolutely no breeze. The chicks look hot, don’t they? They’ve dropped their wings down to help cool themselves. Today is suppose to be over 100 degrees again.
Finally, one last photo of a Green-backed Heron that happened to land under the osprey nest while I waited for the fledging chick to possibly return before I had to leave.
That’s all for today, but what a day! In addition to the excitement of the fledging, I want to thank all of you for leaving such wonderful comments. I hope to continue to give you a smile or chuckle with each visit!
Happy 4th of July!
With the breezy southerly winds the last two days, the chicks have been able to practice and exercise their wings a lot, with some great lift-offs going from one side of the nest to the other.
I got a nice shot of the father osprey flying around the area over the nest. With the growth of the chicks, the father osprey is not on the nest much but he is still doing his duties supplying the food, sticks, and overhead protection.
Welcome to My Oyster Cove Osprey Blog
First let me say thank you for visiting my blog and photo site! This is my first attempt at anything like this so please bear with me as I learn to navigate and create as I go along. My main intent is to provide the Oyster Cove Community as well as family, friends and others that may have in interest, more insight to our osprey nest as well as other Chesapeake area photos that I’d like to share with you and hope you enjoy.
Our osprey family is doing quite well for another season! In this first post, I want to show you several photos of our osprey family’s growth over the last four months. Comparing my photos close-up from last year and this year, it appears this is the same pair that has returned to our nest. Here is my first sighting of the pair together on the nest March 19, 2010. The female osprey arrived first about a week earlier.
The pair did some amazing courtship and bonding, and they worked non-stop rebuilding their nest that incurred heavy damage from this past winter’s weather. They were successful again producing two chicks as last year, and they have since done an excellent job keeping our two chicks well-fed and protected. The female osprey became a permanent fixture on the nest around April 6. She did most of the sitting, but her partner gave her numerous breaks to exercise and eat while he took over. The two chicks hatched sometime during the second week of May.
Here is one of my first photos of the mother osprey feeding one of her chicks who is less than two weeks old.
In the next photo, one of the chicks is smiling for us! This chick is about 2 1/2 weeks old.
The same day I also took the following photo showing both chicks, with one spreading his tiny wings.
The next three photos were taken the following two days and shows the chicks with their downy feathers and white stripe down their back. This stripe is part of their camouflage for protection to blend in with the nest.
One week later, the following photos show the change in the chicks’ feathers, the down is disappearing while pin feathers have begun to grow. Here the chicks are approximately four weeks old.
With such patience, the mother osprey is feeding the chicks. In the following photo, they are about six weeks old and are already amazingly 70-75% full grown!
The mother osprey feeds the chicks fresh fish that the father continues to supply to the nest as well as additional sticks and soft materials to keep the nest strong for the growing family.
Yesterday the mother was showing the chicks flying techniques as she hovered and stayed close circling around the nest, and then landing slowly, sometimes doing a touch-&-go while the chicks were sitting up side by side intently watching her. It looked like they were in school!
The chicks have been practicing daily, spreading and flapping their wings while clinging to the nest with their talons. There has even been a few couple-inch lift-offs but they quickly drop back down and grab the nest. They will fledge any day now on their first of many flights to come. Can you believe the size of those wings now?!!
Finally, here’s a family portrait taken three days ago. The female osprey is usually larger than her mate and has a darker patch on her chest. Our female is on the far right, while our male attempts to adjust a stick.
Bay Photos by Donna 