Prepare for the Worst and Hope for the Best

Happy Monday Everyone!

Ozzie is free! Last night, Facebook messages concerning Ozzie were pouring in like crazy. Ozzie was tangled in monofilament fishing line that had been brought back to the nest by either Tom or Audrey. The night was very windy, dark (most nights tend to be) and the tide was high, so there was no way for us to safely get out to the nest. We decided to check the situation the next morning when it was light.

This morning when we checked the camera, Ozzie still had the line wrapped around her legs. A decision was made to attempt a human rescue. In preparation for the rescue, COM ground the points off a pair of scissors so he wouldn’t accidently harm Ozzie. Jeff from the Chesapeake Conservancy had volunteered to help if needed and arrived at our house around 7:45 am. For those of you who missed it, around 8 am, the osprey rescue commenced. COM and Jeff waded out in the water, which was 3 ½ feet deep. They were carrying a 14 foot stepladder, which they put up in the water near the pole. COM uses the stepladder for various osprey related missions. I was waiting near the nest in my Boston Whaler with a crab net. We were afraid that Ozzie was going to be frightened and try to fly off. Since she had never flown before, there was a possibility that she would land in the water. Mrs. COM was waiting on the dock, taking photos and videos, while ready to assist if needed.

COM waded back to the dock to get his supplies and put on his anti osprey gear. Decked out in his government issue field jacket, leather gloves, safety glasses, and hardhat, COM waded back to the ladder where Jeff was waiting. COM also brought a bucket out to Jeff in case they needed to transport Ozzie. Carefully, COM climbed the ladder while Jeff held it in place. When he got to the top of the ladder, COM found that Ozzie was on the opposite side of the nest, which made her almost beyond reach.

COM assessing the situation

As COM was pondering what to do, he noticed that the other end of the fishing line was on his side of the nest. He gradually pulled Ozzie towards him using the line that was within reach (you can probably see that in the osprey cam video). Also looking at the video, you can see that there was line wrapped around both of Ozzie’s legs. While COM was pulling Ozzie toward him, the line slipped from one of Ozzie’s legs. COM quickly realized that by cutting only one line, Ozzie would be freed from the tangled monofilament. Using the pair of specially modified scissors, he cut the line and Ozzie was free.

COM cutting the monofilament

COM started his descent when Jeff asked if there was any line left in the nest. Back up the ladder he went! Finding no more line, the rescue was complete. Before climbing down the ladder for the final time, COM took 20 seconds to savor the moment and appreciate the beautiful young bird.

Ozzie’s face is priceless

Then he snapped out of his daze and realized that he was, in fact, 14 feet in the air, face to face with an animal who would be glad to attack him.

Although the actual rescue only took around 40 seconds; the preparation was what took the most time. Thank you all for alerting us to Ozzie’s manmade predicament. We are glad that our family and the Conservancy were able to save Ozzie from what could have been a terrible situation.

Here is the line that COM cut from Ozzie:

Monofilament line cut from Ozzie

Our photo contest winner this week is:

Jamie on the TV set in Silver Spring, Maryland

Jerry and Erik at the traffic center in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Adios Amigos, until next time,
Osprey Girl

The Joy of Flight

Good evening from the beautiful Eastern Shore of Maryland! The heat and humidity are giving us a break, there are no storms on the horizon and the best of summer is upon us and our feathered friends.

The last ten days have certainly been exciting for all of you loyal ospreycam watchers as our chicks have begun to take flight. As with most things in life, each of us has to take the good with the bad. For the osprey addicts in our midst, the good is that two of our three young ospreys have fledged and are enjoying the wonders of flight. The bad is that Chester and Essie, and soon to be Ozzie, are spending less and less time in the nest and away from the camera. Here at the secret location, we seem to spend more time watching the comings and goings of the osprey than we did before. There is a greater responsibility in being the eyes for all of you who cannot view our ospreys through the camera. So I have a delightful experience to share with you, as well as many still photos for your viewing pleasure. As soon as I figure out how to edit and post video (thank goodness for tech savvy teenagers), there will be some live action video posted as well.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I find myself spending more and more time (that I don’t have) watching the marvel of our osprey chicks’ new found flight. As I was cleaning up in the kitchen around lunchtime today, I observed all three chicks in the nest. With Chester and Essie having fledged, it is not as common to see all three of them in residence at the same time. The next time I looked out, I saw Chester and Essie take flight. They stayed close to each other, swooping and flying and gliding and having a good old time. As I watched, they continued to fly together, up and down, back and forth, like two children who are playing together. Chester and Essie would fly side by side, then part and go in opposite directions, then fly back to each other again to soar up and dive down together. Their joy in being able to fly was so evident in their actions that I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. I tried to get some video, but their actions were so quick it was hard to film them in a way that could be viewed without getting motion sickness! Near the end of their display of new found flight, one of the two swooped down to the water several times and made motions as if to try to catch fish. One of them ended up in the water for a heart stopping moment, but managed to flap his/her way back into the air. Chester/Essie (I have no idea which one it was) came up empty-taloned, but catching fish are definitely in their not-too-distant future. Later on this afternoon, I witnessed the same behavior again, with one of the young osprey flying very low along the water and swiping at it as if trying to catch dinner. There were many schools of fish visible along the surface of the water today, and I was rooting for the chick to bring home the bacon (fish bacon) to the nest. But it was not to be today.

I am not a photographer, but at times I try. Over the past few days, I have taken hundreds of photos with Crazy Osprey Man’s new fancy digital camera. I would like to share some of my shots with you to give the viewers an idea of where our osprey friends have been spending their time when not on the nest.

Here are some photographs of Chester at the end of our dock, on Crazy Osprey Man’s perches and in flight. I apologize in advance for the masculine reference to Chester in one of the captions, it is just way too much trouble for this technically challenged author to change it with my technical advisor already in bed:

Handsome Chester

Chester-You try balancing on one leg!

Chester-Does my beak look too big on my profile?

Chester on one of COM’s perches doing wing exercises

Chester on perch after exercising his wings

Chester on one of COM’s perches.

Chester-So many perches, so little time

Chester-Almost got’em

Chester in flight

Chester in downstroke

Chester in flight

Chester-Getting my talons ready for action

Chester in flight

I think those are enough photos for this blog. We have many more to share with you in the coming days, including some great shots of Essie during the great boatlift strap caper that Osprey Girl wrote about in her last blog.

So goodnight from the Eastern Shore. As always, we remain:

Crazy Osprey Man and Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man

If you are enjoying the osprey camera and blog, please consider a donation to the Chesapeake Conservancy so they are able to continue supporting programs such as this one. Go to http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org today. Thanks very much!

And Then There Was One

Happy Sunday!
Today was a big day for chick number 2, Essie. Throughout the morning, Essie was hovering for long periods of time above the nest, so we knew that flying was in the near future. At approximately 1:50 pm, Essie officially fledged. She left the nest and landed on a piling at the end of our neighbor’s dock two houses south of us (the same dock where Tom liked to eat his fish before the chicks came along).

Essie standing on a piling

Essie spent her afternoon on the piling and at 4:45 p.m., she decided to head back home. A couple of hours ago, we noticed her on one of our boatlift straps. In the meantime, Chester has spent most of his day on one of Crazy Osprey Man’s perches and a little bit of time at the end of our dock.

Chester on his perch

Over the years, we have noticed that the first time a chick flies, he/she spends a long period of time at their first landing place. When they finally take off again and land at another site, they also spend a lot of time at the second landing site.

Right now, Essie is somewhat stranded on the boatlift strap. She has been there for a couple of hours. When we first noticed her, she seemed to be caught in the strap.

Essie stuck on boat strap

My mom and I went down to the dock to see if we could help her, because she looked like she was struggling. When we approached the boat strap, we discovered that she was not stuck, just in an awkward position. This was all going down as a thunderstorm was approaching and numerous lightning strikes were illuminating the sky above us. My paranoid mother asked me to run back to the house and bring out the camera to get it on video, but when I returned to the dock with the camera, she yelled at me to get inside because of the lightning. Sometimes I just can’t win with her… Audrey has been flying circles around Essie and she is noticeably distraught. A little while ago she landed in a tree on the shoreline closest to Essie. She sat there for a while, and then we saw her disappear over the riprap and dive into the water. She flew up with a small fish, which she took directly back to the nest. Some of you have already noticed, but a tug of war ensued between Audrey and Chester. Greedy Chester won the war, and took the whole fish for himself.

Please keep sending in your pictures! We would love to know where our viewers are!
Our winner today is…

Joan enjoying the Wednesday Night Races in Annapolis with Tom and Audrey.

P.S. Just as I wrote this post Essie flew back home, all three babies are now safe and enjoying the fish without any parental supervision.

Adios Amigos, until next time,

-Osprey Girl

They’re Flying!

Happy Friday Everyone!

As many of you know by now, Chester, the oldest of the babies, left the nest (fledged) around 7:00 am this morning. At 9:25 am, Chester landed on our boatlift. One of the adults flew over and landed next to him at 9:30am. The adult flew off, and at 10:15am, Chester flew to a piling at the end of the dock closest to the nest. I made my way to the dock with my camera at 11:00 am, and caught his first flight back to the nest at 11:20 am. When Chester got back, Essie seemed to be a bit jealous. Essie started hovering a few feet over the nest as well, and really caught a lot of air. As of 6:00 pm Friday, Chester is the only baby we have seen leave the nest. It won’t be long until Essie joins Chester in flight!

Here is a series of photographs taken of Chester’s first flight back to the nest.

Chester leaving a piling at the end of the dock.

No going back now

Don’t look down

Almost home

Home Sweet Home

A Visit To The Nest

The Chesapeake Conservancy held an osprey coloring contest at Matapeake Elementary School on Kent Island. The winner, Ella, a rising fourth grader, won a very special visit. Ella and her family stopped by on Wednesday for an up close and personal view of the osprey and their home. On Facebook, I noticed a few posts about the “red thing” in the nest. While Ella and her brother were visiting, they put 6 sticks out in the yard marked with survey tape. Three of the sticks have already been used by Tom for construction, and are visible from the camera. The Conservancy will be posting Ella’s winning drawing soon, so make sure you take a look!

Ella and her brother spreading marked sticks

Last but not least, we have two new winners for the photo contest!

Lily watching from Severna Park, Maryland

Mr. Mittens (NOT to be outdone by all those dogs!) watching from North Beach, MD

Adios Amigos, until next time,
-Osprey Girl

Rescue At Sea #2-From the Annals of Crazy Osprey Man

Good morning from the hot, hot, hot, humid Eastern Shore of Maryland. The weather the past few days has been bordering on unbearable. Sitting here at my computer in my delightfully air conditioned home makes me feel even worse for our feathered friends out there in the elements. I am looking out the window as I write, and keep hoping for a few clouds to pass over to give our osprey family some respite from the blazing hot sun.

There has been much Facebook traffic regarding the highly anticipated first flight, and some of you have been absolutely certain that a chick has been missing from the nest at times. Here at the secret location, we have the decided advantage of having a much broader view of what is happening around the nest. We also have some great 30x binoculars which allow us different views of the nest from various locations around the house and yard. From our many vantage points, none of the babies have taken flight yet. Although at times you haven’t been able to see all three from the camera angle, we have checked the nest when there has been a question as to how many occupants are present. All three have been in residence each time we have checked. Due to our enhanced views, we even had the Conservancy contact us yesterday to have us check on everyone. We promise to post something as soon as there is first flight!

I hinted in the last blog of a possible second rescue at sea story. As the title of that blog was Rescue At Sea #1, our clever readers probably (and correctly) surmised there would be a Rescue At Sea #2. Patience is a virtue, so please enjoy the true tale of our second rescue at sea:

The date is sometime in mid-July, the year is 1999, the time is early evening. We had three chicks that year from the original Tom and Audrey pair. According to Crazy Osprey Man’s notes, only one of the babies had started to fly by the evening in question. I have a vivid recollection of the very high tide, wind and waves as I looked out the kitchen window. When a person lives on the water and is able to observe all of the varying conditions around them, you become very attuned to something that doesn’t look quite right. As I was cleaning up from dinner, I glanced out of the kitchen window, and something didn’t look quite right. I quickly realized that there were three ospreys flapping around in the water near our nest pole, and they were in distress. After a panicked call to Crazy Osprey Man, I put the binoculars on the trio and saw one adult and two babies. Much to my horror, it appeared that they were tangled in something and unable to free themselves.

By this time, Crazy Osprey Man had raced down the dock, grabbed the wire crab net and jumped into the water. When he got to the flailing ospreys, only two were still visible on the surface. He scooped the young osprey up in the net, and started back to the dock. COM quickly realized the adult was attached to the young one, all tangled up together in monofilament fishing line. The adult was flapping hard, and managed to break free and fly off with fishing line still attached and hanging down. Remaining in the net was one very scared, wet, tired and bloodied young osprey, entwined in the fishing line. At Crazy Osprey Man’s direction, I ran up to the house and retrieved a large bucket to bring down to the rescue site. COM transferred the scared bird to the bucket, and was able to cut away the fishing line that was tangled around the bird. Sometime during the struggle in the water, the fishing line had cut the chick, and it was bleeding around one of its wings.

Okay, faithful readers, now what? We have a young osprey that needs to get back to the nest, which sits twelve feet above the water. There are two adult ospreys circling the area that are not happy with the situation at hand. One baby has already been lost at sea. We do not know if the third baby is still in the nest or was pulled from the nest with the other two. The water is about four feet deep, with heavy wind and waves. So our plan of action was put into place.

Living next door to us at the time was a family with two teenage boys. I ran to their door and explained the situation. Fortunately, both boys were home and willing to help in the rescue. Crazy Osprey Man ran into the house, and came back with a ladder. He was now wearing a long, heavy jacket, a pair of hockey gloves and a hat (anti-osprey gear). COM and the boys got in the water with the osprey-containing bucket and ladder. As they waded over to the nest pole, they had to keep an eye on the adult ospreys who were circling the area and making unhappy cries. The boy’s mission was to hold the ladder up to the pole, but not let it rest on the nest. This was not an easy task given the weather conditions at the time. Crazy Osprey Man’s mission was to climb the ladder with the osprey bucket, and place the baby back in the nest. All the while, I was standing on the dock with the crab net and a variety of other implements if needed during the rescue. COM climbed the ladder in his full anti-osprey outfit, and was greeted by a very scared young osprey flattened down in the nest. We all breathed a sigh of relief knowing that chick #3 was still in the nest, and hadn’t drowned with his/her sibling in the melee. The rescued baby was placed back in the nest, COM climbed back down the ladder, and the three heroes waded back to shore.

The next day, we were able to determine that it had been Audrey that was tangled in the fishing line. Our theory as to how this incident happened is that Tom brought back a fish that still had fishing line attached, and left it for Audrey and the kids. As you have seen from watching the camera, at this age, the babies and mom are all actively involved in the feeding process. Two of the babies and Audrey must have gotten tangled in the line. When Audrey flew off, the two young ospreys were pulled out of the nest by the fishing line. Their combined weight must have pulled Audrey out of the air, and all three ended up in the water. We don’t know how long they had been in the water when spotted, but it couldn’t have been very long. This is a true lesson for all of you fisherman out there to be very careful with your fishing line. Make sure to dispose of it properly. Here is a device that may be used for fishing line disposal. The directions to make one are on line:

PVC fishing line recycling container

Over the next couple of days, Audrey could be seen pecking and pulling at the fishing line that was still attached to her. She managed to remove it, and did not seem to suffer any ill effects from her ordeal. Both remaining young osprey learned to fly, and left our area at the appropriate time later in the summer. This was an experience we hope never to witness again, but if it does happen, we will be ready to spring into action!

Our winning photo for this blog is from our very own Gramps Rothe, the unofficial King of the Order of Osprey Watchers on the Conservancy’s Facebook page:

Gramps Rothe watching ospreycam from his sun porch overlooking the woods at Hallmark Woods, Gambrills, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland (near Crofton).

Until next time, we remain
Crazy Osprey Man and Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man

If you are enjoying the osprey camera and blog, please consider a donation to the Chesapeake Conservancy so they are able to continue supporting programs such as this one. Go to http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org today. Thanks very much!

A Fish Tale

Happy Thursday, everyone. It is partly cloudy here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We have had many pop up thunder storms over the past few days and the humidity just won’t leave us alone.

A pop up storm over Eastern Bay on July 7th.

A couple of days ago, we saw Tom getting ready to swoop down in the backyard. Since he has been very busy bringing materials to the nest, we figured he was picking up another stick for construction. Tom was headed toward an object that looked like a stick laying in the middle of the backyard. When he flew off with the object, it wasn’t a stick. Instead, it was a huge, still flapping fish that he must have just dropped. Unfortunately, we missed the falling of the fish, how could you miss a fish falling out of the sky?! Although the type of fish wasn’t readily identifiable, we figured it was a Menhaden.

The osprey’s diet consists totally of fish. In the Chesapeake Bay, the majority of the fish consumed by osprey are Menhaden. This fact may have already been noticed by some of the camera watching fish experts in our midst. Jim Uphoff, fisheries biologist from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, was kind enough to share an abundance of information with us concerning Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. He actually provided a 10-page report (translated into Spanish if necessary), but the detailed information is beyond the scope of this blog. If you would like to read the full report, you can contact me at tom_audrey_osprey@yahoo.com and I will send it to you.

Menhaden

Menhaden make up one of the largest and oldest fisheries on the Atlantic Coast, and they are a key figure in the Chesapeake Bay Food Web. Similar to oysters, Menhaden are filter feeders that consume algae and planktonic organisms. Osprey, Bald Eagles, Blue Fish, Weakfish, and Striped Bass rely on Menhaden as a food source. Similar to many other creatures in the Bay, their population is declining due to overfishing. Fortunately, there seems to be an ample supply of Menhaden around Tom and Audrey’s nest.

The ecology lesson is over for the day. I would like to thank the camera watchers for submitting their Tom and Audrey contest pictures, and I hope we will receive many more in the near future.

Adios Amigos, until next time,
-Osprey Girl

The winning photo for today was submitted by 103.1 WRNR radio in Annapolis, Maryland. The photo was taken after they dedicated the song “Surfin Bird” to Tom and Audrey.

Carrie and Tom watching from the WRNR studios in Annapolis Maryland.

Bibliography: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/issues/issue/menhaden#inline

Rescue At Sea #1-From The Annals of Crazy Osprey Man

Good evening from the beautiful Eastern Shore of Maryland! It is a wonderful evening, eighty two degrees with a very light breeze blowing from the south southeast. Over the past several days, there has been a plethora of Facebook traffic upon which to comment. I will make a few observations and answer some pressing questions from the viewers. The meat of this blog, however, will be a true story from the annals of Crazy Osprey Man, the telling of which was spurred by Facebook discussions regarding young ospreys falling from the nest. But first to address a few points:

Just to set the record straight, there was no big party at the home of Crazy Osprey Man and Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man on Saturday night. At around 7:00 p.m., we took a boat ride to watch some fireworks in the area. If we are going boating at night, we will turn on flood lights attached to the back of the house that illuminate our backyard. The lights are visible for many miles over the water, so they act as a safety beacon to guide us back to the dock at night. Ambient light from the flood lamps also makes the nest visible at night. When Audrey was observed doing the head bob at around 10:24 p.m., her consternation was caused by us coming back to the dock. I chuckled when I read the Facebook post about her head bobbing, because I saw her doing it as we pulled in and wondered if any of the astute ospreycam watchers would notice. And you didn’t let me down! The lights were turned off at around 11:00 p.m., so all of the anxious camera watchers could finally go to bed.

Regarding a Sunday discussion on Facebook about the return of our young osprey to their original nest after their first migration: After the chicks leave in late summer, they will not return to this area next year. We would expect them to return in 2015, but they will be all grown up and not recognizable. Every year when the ospreys return around St. Patrick’s Day, there is much squabbling over the nest. Over the years of observing our osprey, we have theorized that some of the returning ospreys are offspring of our original Tom and Audrey pair, and the current pair. The young head for home sweet home (similar to recent college graduates), but are told in no uncertain terms by their osprey parents to get their own apartments. After much ensuing confusion around the nest, everything is sorted out and the young ospreys finally find their own digs.

A question was posed on Facebook inquiring as to what would happen if one of the chicks fell out of the nest. As I am sure you have observed, the nest is getting quite crowded. The “flap” portion of the promised hop, flap, hover maneuver has begun. There is much flapping (and serious head bonking) to come, and when the hop and hover are added, it is a sight to behold. Keep watching, it is Nature’s own comedy show! But I digress from the matter at hand, so back to the question of chicks falling out of the nest:

So now to a true tale from the annals of Crazy Osprey Man’s (COM) notes from the past. The year is 2000 and the date is July 17. This was the sixth year with our original Tom and Audrey pair. As this was before our first camera was installed by COM in 2002, we were watching the nest through telescoping and gyrostabilized binoculars. Three chicks had been observed in the nest by this time, and two of them had just begun to fly.

At 7:00 a.m., Crazy Osprey Man heard a panicked call from Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man that one of the three babies was in the water between the nest and the shore. Crazy Osprey Man ran to the end of the dock to get the wire crab net, then jumped into the water to try and scoop up the baby to save it from drowning. As he got close to the distressed bird, the baby began to fly-swim (word taken directly from COM’s notes) toward shore. The baby osprey would push his wings down on the surface of the water, which would lift his/her body up and move the bird one or two feet forward toward the rip-rap (stones that run along our shoreline to protect the backyard from erosion). In twenty or so flap-strokes, the Michael Phelps of the osprey world arrived at the rip-rap and climbed onto the rocks, tired and wet but safe. As the wayward baby had literally just learned to fly, we were worried about him/her making it back to the nest. After a rest from the ordeal and a little drying off, the little heart-stopping troublemaker flew back to the nest. A huge sigh of relief was heard from the human pseudoparents. Whew!

If you have read the title of this blog carefully, you have probably figured out that there is a second rescue at sea tale to be told. You will just have to wait and see!

Before closing, Osprey Girl has asked me to share the first winner(s) of her “Where In The World Are Tom and Audrey?” Photo Contest. There is a three-way tie for the winner posted to this blog. She presents to you:

Oscar pays special attention when Audrey fusses at Tom.
Heidi- Houston, Texas

Lily patiently waiting for the eggs to hatch.
Renee- Shady Side, Maryland

Everyone in Riva Maryland loves watching the osprey cam, even Roxie.
Karl and Maureen- Riva, Maryland

That’s it for tonight. Until next time, we remain,

Crazy Osprey Man and Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man

If you are enjoying the osprey camera and blog, please consider a donation to the Chesapeake Conservancy so they are able to continue supporting programs such as this one. Go to http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org today. Thanks very much!

Where In The World Are Tom and Audrey?

Happy 6th of July!

The Ospreycam already has 244,000+ hits from 89 countries and all 50 states. It is amazing that so many people from so many parts of the world are tuned into our friends Tom and Audrey. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we were able to share photos of people watching the ospreycam from places around the country and the world? That is why we are starting a photo contest.

You can submit a picture of yourself watching the camera from where ever you are located on the globe! Winning photographs will be posted onto the blog. Please keep in mind that if you submit a photograph, there is a chance that it will be posted on the Internet and viewed by others.

Smartphones, IPads and laptops would be the best option to use, because they are easily portable. If you watch the camera from a desktop computer, you probably won’t be able to take it anywhere cool (unless your office is cool…). If you don’t have a cool office, you can take the Flat Stanley approach and print out a picture of Tom and Audrey to take with you on your travels.

• You must be 18 years or older to submit a photo
• Try to submit a unique photo that specifically shows your location
• Send your photos to Tom_audrey_osprey@yahoo.com
• Please include a caption stating where you are and a first name

Our first winner is Rodney, watching from Queen Anne’s County, Maryland Emergency Services Station

Can’t wait to see the photos!
Adios amigos, until next time,
Osprey Girl

Now That’s A Nest

Good Evening Everyone! The temperature today on the shore was 80 degrees. The sun made a few appearances, but in my opinion not enough! Unfortunately, the humidity is still alive and well.

I wanted to share with everyone an interesting sight I encountered last night. I was on the boat with my dad and some friends and we were headed to St. Michaels for a waterfront dinner. As usual, we were going slowly through the Wye River because my dad likes to look at all of the boats (typical dad). Anyway, I was zoning in and out, staring at the gray sky, when something out of the ordinary caught my eye. There was a huge osprey nest on a boatlift about 15 feet from our boat. It seemed to be 6 feet across and as we approached it, we could see 2 baby osprey heads poking up.

A very angry mama osprey emerged from the nest and a distressed dad was circling us from the air. When mama gave us this “defensive” gesture we knew this was our cue to get out as fast as possible. However, it did not stop me from snapping a quick picture to share.

As you might have observed on the ospreycam, Tom and Audrey’s 2 foot nest is no where near the size of this 6 foot nest. We disassemble the nest every season for two very important reasons. One, parasites could be present in the nest, which can be harmful to the birds. Two, the nest would get too heavy for the pole and eventually fall over in a storm. Tom and Audrey don’t seem to mind the demolition of their summer home (after they leave for the season). Even at this point, Tom and Audrey are still diligently adding sticks, even if it means hitting one of their babies.

You may have noticed Tom bringing some short fat sticks to the nest. These are from my neighbor’s tree. In order to get the sticks, Tom is literally swooping down and pulling them off of the branches of the half dead tree. The black fuzzy material that you might see is filter cloth that we have under our riprap in the backyard. Tom swoops down and tears pieces off and brings them back to the nest. I guess Crazy Osprey Man better get ready with some more pre-fab sticks!

Adios Amigos, until next time,
Osprey Girl