Ospreys In Action-Part One

Good evening from the hot and humid Eastern Shore! Although there is not as much activity at our osprey residence as in weeks past, our little bird family is still very active in the surrounding environs of the nest. And I stand corrected about Audrey being gone. As soon as I posted the last blog, and opined that Audrey had left for points south, sure enough one of the astute Facebook followers/ospreycam watchers posted a photo of two adults in the nest that very next day. I guess I have let the rest of my life get in the way of ospreycam watching. How did that happen? When I returned home from work today, Crazy Osprey Man recounted that he had seen all five of our osprey family in the area of the nest during the day. I will take him at his word, although I personally have only seen one adult at a time.

Just before the sun went down tonight, all three young ospreys were up close and personal. One was on a COM perch, one was in the nest and one was on top of the camera. It is almost impossible to tell the youngsters apart from a distance. The ospreys have become very camera shy of late, and it is harder to sneak up on them and snap a few photos, even from afar with our great camera. I was able to take a few early this evening before all three flew off to a very large tree on the water behind a neighbor’s house to the north of us. The photos posted below of all three in the tree were taken just before we went on vacation a couple of weeks ago.

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog (being part one), we have many photos of our ospreys in action, all from the area surrounding their digs. In some of the photos, you will be able to tell if the bird in question is an adult or juvenile. We will share them over the next few blogs, as there are too many to post at once. We hope you will be looking forward to the rest of them with breathless anticipation. Here goes!

Hanging out in a neighbor’s tree to the north of us

Hm, I wonder what’s going on over there in the other tree?

Maybe I will go take a look…

This other tree looks interesting

Here we go! And look, a friend is already here (look carefully below the landing osprey)

Me, too! (third juvenile arrives from the first tree)

Someone isn’t happy about sharing

I mean it, go away!

Pretty please, may I stay?

Don’t make me get out of this tree

I am not kidding, now go away!!

Go home or I am telling Mom and Dad

The Agony of Defeat

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We have many, many photos still to share. Here is a great one to leave you with:

Family Portrait (adult is probably Tom)

Osprey Girl has asked me to share another winning entry from her photo contest:

Janet from Highland Lakes, New Jersey watches Tom, Audrey and family during downtime at her barber shop.

That’s all for now. 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!

Fish, Anyone?

The Crazy Osprey Family is back! Out of town summer fun, visiting family and friends, has taken up a fair amount of our August. We are catching up with our daily lives, and our osprey family is certainly a part of our activities. It’s good to go away, but we missed our feathered friends.

All three chicks are now flying with gusto and confidence. Chester and Essie still enjoy a good time flying around together. And I am sure the Facebook watchers have noticed that sometimes there are four young ospreys in our nest! The visiting cousin looks quite a bit different than our resident youngsters, with a whiter face and head. At one point yesterday, I looked at the camera, and there were two youngsters in the nest, each chowing down on the bottom half of a fish. As all of you camera watchers are aware, it is increasingly difficult to tell the young ones apart without seeing their chest feathers. And we certainly don’t like to share now, do we?

There have been a few questions on Facebook asking if Chester, Essie and Ozzie have been catching their own fish or still being fed by Tom and Audrey. At this point, we feel that Audrey has gone on to her winter digs. We have not observed two adults together in the nest since before our August travels began. This has been the usual pattern for our Tom and Audrey pairs over the years. Audrey will leave first, then Tom will head south around the same time as the kids. One adult is still around, and we are fairly certain it is Tom.

But now back to the fish question. We would like to share with you a series of photographs that will answer the question of who is now catching the fish.

Ozzie in the nest minding her own business

Ozzie settling in, waiting for fish.

Here comes a menhaden!

What do you think of this one, Ozzie?

Don’t tell Mom and Dad I know how to do this.

Everyone shows up for a free meal

I don’t think there is enough for everyone

Ready or not, here I come!

Don’t pretend you can’t see me

Hey, where are you guys going?

Maybe if I hide my head, they won’t see me coming

Hey, come back with that fish!

Mine, all mine

I don’t want to share

I hope I don’t drop this thing

Where do I go now?

No doubt that this is one of the youngsters

This menhaden is trying to get away!

I need to hold on with two talons

No harm in looking

This fish is getting heavy

I’m back!

I told you I wouldn’t eat it all

Do you still want some?

As you can see, the parent(s) are no longer exclusively feeding their young. Our babies are growing up, and are frequently successful in catching their own fish. We have a plethora of other photos to post in days to come. In the next blog, we will take a trip around the neighborhood to visit some of the ospreys favorite places when they are not in the nest.

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!

It’s A Little Bittersweet

It’s A Little Bittersweet

Ozzie thanks everyone for believing in her! My family and I were out of town over the weekend without connection to the osprey cam, so unfortunately we missed the excitement of Ozzie’s first flight. Thus, I am not able to share all the details with every one as I had with Chester and Essie.

Ozzie landing on camera

Now that all of our little feathered friends are capable of flight, the nest has been very empty. We were all rooting for Ozzie to take her first flight, and then reality hit us. The birds would no longer be spending as much time in the nest. Staring at an empty nest doesn’t have the same attraction as watching birds in residence, but it was bound to happen. I will do my best to keep every one filled in on the birds’ whereabouts. Although the majority of their meals are brought back to the nest, sometimes the ospreys choose a different spot to enjoy their fish. Earlier today, one of the babies was sitting on one of COM’s perches, happily nibbling on a midday snack while enjoying the nice sunny weather. All of a sudden, the fish dropped out of its talons. Whoops! Curiously peering into the water below, the osprey knew the fish was long gone.

The bird in the background has a fish

Recently, I have had a tough time trying to tell the ospreys apart. When the first baby took flight, we all knew that it was Chester. When it was the second baby’s turn, he was clearly Essie. Now that the runt of the group has her license to fly, telling them apart is nearly impossible.

This morning Mrs. COM was outside trying to take some photos of the young ospreys around the dock and perches. While she was busy with the camera, one of the adults left the nest, started screaming at her, and tried to dive bomb the intruder. Here are some of the photos she took before, during and after this event.

Flying over Mrs.COM

Our winner this week is…

Nurse Sue watching from Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD

Adios Amigos! Until Next Time,
Osprey Girl

Ospreys, Ospreys Everywhere

My, my, my, what a heart pounding few days we have had here at the secret ospreycam location. Ozzie has certainly given us all some interesting moments, to say the least. She doesn’t seem any worse for wear after her Sunday/Monday ordeal. First flight seems to be only hours away for our little number three chick. Wednesday evening was quite breezy, and she was catching some good air. I thought she was going for it, as she was hovering way up above the camera several times. But back down she came every time. So close, so close! The Crazy Osprey Family is at the ready with various recording devices nearby at all times. We will keep our fingers crossed that we are able to capture the first flight.

Although Ozzie has been up front and center recently, life goes on around the nest. Chester and Essie still enjoy flying around together. They are both trying very hard to snag a fish, and their command of flight has improved dramatically. As I was outside yesterday with Crazy Osprey Man’s new fancy digital camera trying to catch some images of our feathered friends, I counted the number of ospreys visible to me at one time. There were two in our nest, probably Audrey and Ozzie. There was also one in each of the two scraggly trees to the north of our house, and six, count’m, six flying around over the water behind our house. So without hardly turning my head, I could see ten osprey in the immediate area. Osprey Girl and Crazy Osprey Man took her Boston Whaler around the area where we live a couple of weeks ago. In approximately three miles of shoreline, they counted fifteen active nests and three empty nests. Wow! The Chesapeake Bay has certainly been good to the recovering osprey population over the years.

When I wrote my last blog about The Joy of Flight, I shared some photographs of Chester with you. Osprey Girl has also shared some photos of Chester, and one of Essie on his first day of flight. The day that Essie first flew was a little different than most as far as the availability of landing places. As we have mentioned before, when the chicks fly for the first time, they will be gone from the nest for a long period of time. This has happened to Chester and Essie. The day Essie first took flight, COM was down in Southern Maryland with his boat that usually occupies the large boat lift on our dock. As the boat lift was empty, the straps were exposed to whatever happened to come along. What happened to come along was Essie, looking for a place to land on his day of first flight. Osprey Girl has told you the story and shown you one photo of Essie in his precarious position, but I am going to add a little to the tale already told.

When we first saw Essie on the boat lift strap, he was standing at a very awkward angle on the side of the strap which was hanging in an almost vertical position. Essie appeared to be in some distress. As he looked like he might be stuck in the strap, I ran down to the dock to try and help him. I called Osprey Girl to come down and help me, and as she has already told you, a thunderstorm was imminent. We tried to straighten out the strap and hold it so Essie would have something to push against to try and take off, but it was to no avail. I tried to shake him off the strap, he just held on tighter. Essie was having no parts of leaving. He did manage to get himself to the lower section of the strap that was more horizontal. We felt better about that position, as he could just perch there without having to contort himself. As he obviously wasn’t going anywhere, I decided to take advantage of his plight and take some photos, which I share with you now:

Essie-How did I get here, and how do I get out of here?

Essie-Please put your boat back in the lift so this never happens to me again

Essie-Maybe they won’t notice me if I don’t look at them

Essie-This is so embarrassing

Essie-Please don’t make fun of my skinny legs

Essie-Do my eyes look red in this picture?

Here’s hoping our next blog will be the story of Ozzie the Fledging!

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

If you are enjoying the osprey camera and blog, please consider donating 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!