Please Help To Name Our New Fledgling!

You asked for it, and you got it!  Here is the link to vote for a name for our newest arrival.  Happy voting!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LYXXX2T

Thanks, everyone and have a wonderful weekend!!

Mrs. COM

E.T. Phone Home

Good evening from the delightful Eastern Shore of Maryland.  What can I possibly say about the events of the last few days?  There certainly is never a dull moment here at the secret location. Just when you think it couldn’t get any crazier, Mother Nature does it again.  I guess she didn’t like the name of my last blog, and you really can’t fool Mother Nature.  So this whole situation is probably my fault, please accept my apology, Mother Nature!

I had all intentions of writing a nice story full of descriptive photographs about the very cool banding operation that went on here last Friday.  As you probably know, Craig Koppie, assisted by Crazy Osprey Man and friends, banded our two chicks.  The larger of the two chicks has red tape on the band.  Mr. Koppie thinks that chick is a female, so we gave her the more feminine sounding name, Montana (after all, it does end in an “a”).  The yellow banded chick is probably a male, so by default he is now known as Maine. These names were nominated by members of the Chesapeake Conservancy’s Osprey Club after two nests in (you guessed it), Maine and Montana, and were voted on by the osprey-watching public.  None of the eggs or chicks from those two nests survived, so the names were chosen in their memory.  Thank you all for voting. Yes, I had suggested Oliver and Annie in an earlier blog and still like those names, but Maine and Montana are great names and a tribute to all the chicks that will not be making the trip South this fall.

So, as I was coming up with a catchy title for the banding blog (and I still intend on using the great name that popped into my head), something extraordinary happened at our nest.  Sunday afternoon, as many of you were watching our ospreycam, a visitor appeared at the nest.  It was a young fledgling who had probably just taken one of his (my choice of pronouns) first flights.  As I have mentioned in the past, there are many osprey nests surrounding our neighborhood.  We theorize that when the chick took this flight, possibly even his first flight, he landed in our nest by accident.  Over the years, we have seen newly fledged chicks end up in some unusual locations. The appearance of a third chick did not go unnoticed by our astute blog readers and camera watchers.  The newbie caused quite a stir and it didn’t take long for my email to light up with blog comments (I do read each and every one).  I called a couple of neighbors who have nests near their homes to see if anyone was missing a fledging, and then contacted our osprey experts.  Here is an excerpt from my email to them:

A wayward fledgling landed in our nest!  So now we have three young ones in the nest!  I wonder if the interloper will leave?  Audrey has been feeding the new arrival, much to the chagrin of the camera watchers/blog readers.  The comments are on fire!!

Here is the response from our ever-clever Dr. Spitzer:

Yes.  “Visitation” occurs among adolescent ospreys–and they are often tolerated.  Surely many of your watchers have kids, and can relate to this?  (Though they don’t feed their friends Raw Fish.) So your Osprey Cam reveals more Osprey Science, and the range of “Normal” behavior.

So it is good to know that Dr. Spitzer feels that having a third youngster show up is normal.  It may be normal, but it has never happened to us in the twenty years we have had our nest.  When I looked out on Monday morning and saw Number Three take a short flight and come right back to our nest, I knew E.T. was here to stay. I refer to him as E.T. until we figure out what to do for a name.  There have been mixed reactions from our blog commenting crowd, ranging from those of you that are very welcoming to our new buddy to those of you who wish E.T. would phone home for directions and head out.  But like it or not, he is here to stay (I am choosing the masculine pronoun for convenience sake, not because I know his true gender).  I am not saying he is a welcome addition to everyone, but everything should work out fine in the end.  Tom has been a fantastic provider, and I think the fish will just keep on coming!

When Craig Koppie was here on Friday, he told us that he thought Maine and Montana would be flying within two weeks of the banding, which was July 17.  We have been seeing some flapping going on, so Mr. Koppie is right on target.  My uneducated opinion is that E.T. is probably no more than a couple of weeks older than our chicks, so Maine and Montana should be right behind him and close to fledging.

There have been many questions popping up in the blog comments, and I will try to answer some of them.  A recurring one concerns the true identity of our chicks, specifically if they are blood siblings or not.  We asked Mr. Koppie that question, and his response is that there is no way to really tell (short of DNA testing, I suppose, which is not and will not be an option).  I will ask him about the chicks at the foster incubation nest when next we meet, which should be soon.

I want to share a couple of quick stories with you.  We have the advantage here at the secret location of being able to see a panorama of what is going on outside of the nest.  E.T. has mastered the art of flying quite nicely.  When he is not in the nest, one of his favorite spots is the swim ladder on our neighbor’s dock two houses to the south of us.  Another preferred spot has become the electric box on the end of our dock, one of Tom Number Two’s favorite dining locations.  I can usually spot E.T. somewhere in the area if he is not in residence.  But when Tom comes flying back to the nest with a fish, no matter where E.T. is, he comes blasting back to the nest like a man (bird?) with a mission.  It is quite comical to see him screaming across the water as fast as he can fly to get back to the nest for chow.  He reminds me of a dog or cat running to the food bowl when you start rattling the kibble container!

The other interesting tidbit I wanted to point out is something else I have never seen before this week.  Tom has brought a couple of fish back to the nest that have been the top half with an intact head to the middle, and not the usual back half complete with tail that we usually see.

One additional behavior that I have been seeing quite regularly is Tom sitting on top of the camera.  Both of our other Toms used the top of the camera quite regularly, but it seems to have taken Calico Tom longer to figure out this good place from where to admire his kingdom!

Here are some photos that were mostly taken since the last blog was published.  Remember, you can click on each photo to enhance your viewing pleasure.  I hope you like them!

 

Our regal Calico Tom sitting in the scraggly stick tree one house to the north of us.

These next three photos were taken before the last blog was published, but I like them. You can really see the chick’s heads in the second one:

Audrey feeding the chicks while Tom surveys his kingdom

Audrey feeding her first two chicks when there were only two mouths to feed

A peaceful scene at the nest when there was a family of four

 

Many of you have commented about possible intruders disturbing our osprey family.  There are many different reasons for the commotion you sometimes see and hear in the nest.  Here is an example of what might be going on around the nest to cause the alarm:

A reason for the alarm to go out and the chicks to hit the deck.

I am always on the look out for interesting photograph opportunities to share with you.  I snapped this photo of Tom on our next door neighbor’s dock to the north of us.  His catch did not go unnoticed by a hungry gull:

Didn’t your mother teach you to share?

I guess I got too close for comfort, and Tom took off with his fish to our next door neighbor’s dock on the other side of us:

After Tom left our next door neighbor’s dock to the north of us, he headed for our next door neighbor’s dock to the south of us.

First a sea gull, now a freeloading crow:

Tom on our boat lift with a hopeful crow. “Surely there is enough there for me” thought the crow.

It has become a tradition for the Crazy Osprey Family to host the good folks from the Chesapeake Conservancy at a happy hour dock party. We ended up with twenty six people at the end of the dock, and fortunately, no one in the drink.  Here is a photo from that event that took place last week.  You might recognize the electric box and boat lift from other photos:

Third Annual Happy Hour Dock Party with the folks from the Chesapeake Conservancy. Tom, Audrey and the kids were watching from nearby.

Here is a photo of E.T. getting ready to land in the nest and upset the proverbial apple cart:

E.T. approaching the nest

Still learning to land gracefully:

Practice makes perfect!

One more landing photo:

A cool landing photo

We have had some really uncomfortable weather, but Audrey sure knows how to shade’m:

Mombrella

The growing family:

 

E.T., Maine, Montana and Audrey waiting for a fish dinner

 

Our “Where In The World Are Tom and Audrey” winner for the week:

A lovely artistic photo submitted by Lombard Hardware in Baltimore while watching the ospreycam from the beach in Ocean City, Maryland

Remember to submit your entry to “Tom_audrey_osprey@yahoo.com and you may be the next winner!

I think that is enough for tonight.  An early wake-up, work and the almighty dollar will be calling in a few hours.  Until next time, we remain-

Crazy Osprey Man, Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man and Osprey Girl

 

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://chesapeakeconservancy.org today.  Thanks very much!

 

Who Said You Can’t Fool Mother Nature?

Good morning from the fabulous Eastern Shore of Maryland!  Life has been busy, busy here at the secret location with graduation parties, New Student Orientation, shopping for dorm necessities and unfortunately, chasing the almighty dollar at work.  I have finally had a chance to go through our photos and amaze you all with our next blog.

As promised, I will now regale you with a most heartwarming retelling of the events of Wednesday, June 17, 2015 here at the secret location.    After it became painfully obvious that our eggs were not viable and would not hatch, Dr. Paul Spitzer, our dear friend and osprey ornithologist, suggested that we find a foster chick to place in our nest for Tom and Audrey to raise.  A flurry of activity ensued between the Chesapeake Conservancy, Craig Koppie, raptor biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Crazy Osprey Family.  Mr. Koppie had been involved with a situation on Poplar Island involving a pair of ospreys who had been attempting to build a nest on a piling where the barges pulled in.  Poplar Island, which is located in the Chesapeake Bay, is currently being rebuilt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using clean dredged materials from the Chesapeake Bay’s approach channels to Baltimore, which is located approximately 30 miles to the north, north/west of Poplar Island.  The pair of ospreys in question would try to do some nest building, and the nest would be knocked off by the barges.  This situation kept repeating itself until one day when the female laid two eggs on the piling.   The nest consisted of a few sticks laying on the piling, certainly not an ideal place to incubate and raise osprey chicks, especially with barges coming and going all day and disturbing the nest.

Koppie and other wildlife biologists decided to remove the eggs and place them in a foster nest where a female osprey was already incubating three eggs.  There are twenty five active osprey nests on Poplar Island, and it was not difficult to find a suitable foster mother to incubate the eggs.  The Chesapeake Conservancy contacted Mr. Koppie, who works as a raptor biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  It seemed that our mutual situations would be a great fit to solve his problem of potentially having too many chicks in one nest and our problem of not having any chicks in our nest.  He checked the nest in early June, and determined that four of the five eggs had hatched, and two of the chicks needed to be relocated to ensure the survival of all four young.  Now a suitable day to transfer the chicks to our nest had to be identified.  Mr. Koppie wanted to wait for a day that was not sweltering hot, and preferably wanted to place the chicks early on a cool morning when they were ten to fourteen days old.

On June 16, 2015, Mr. Koppie, along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists Peter McGowan and Robbie Callahan, visited the foster nest and saw that the four chicks were doing well.  A decision was made to remove the two chicks with the greater weight and body condition to become foster chicks in Tom and Audrey’s nest here on Kent Island.   I am sure the adult pair at that nest were probably happy to have two less mouths to feed!  Tom Collins from Kool Ice & Seafood Company, Inc. in Cambridge, Maryland donated fresh menhaden so Mr. Koppie would be able to feed the foster chicks before they were placed in the nest on Wednesday morning.  Apparently, ospreys will not eat fish that have already been frozen.  Mr. Koppie fed the chicks at around 10:00 p.m. that night.

Wednesday morning, June 17 arrived, clear and refreshingly cool, a perfect scenario for the chick transfer.  Mr. Koppie and his associate, Teena Gorrow from Salisbury University, arrived at the secret location along with a reporter and photographer from Hearst Broadcasting.  He took the chicks out of his bag, and placed them on our deck table while getting ready.

Here was our first meeting with our new foster chicks. Remember, you should click on each photo to enlarge it for your viewing pleasure:

 

Delivery room!

 

Like most babies, they didn’t stay awake very long:

Naptime in the delivery room

 

This is one of my favorite photos of our new chicks, such an artistic shot!

Our foster chicks before they were placed in the nest

 

I’m sure our babies were quite perplexed at the series of events that brought them to our deck table:

Where are we?

 

Everyone got to snap lots of photographs:

 

COM taking a picture of our new arrivals

 

COM and I got to hold our new friends.  Osprey Girl was happy to take photos, and didn’t have any desire to hold the young ospreys. .

 

And then the transfer began.  First, Mr. Koppie and COM got their equipment together to go out to the nest.  COM had already set up his giant stepladder.  I manned the video camera, and Osprey Girl memorialized the events of the day with our super duper Nikon:

 

Precious cargo-chicks in a bag

 

Audrey was on the nest, wondering about all the commotion.  Tom was nowhere to be found:

 

Motherhood is just a few moments away

 

Then the trudge through the water began.  Fortunately, the tide was not too high that morning:

 

Craig Koppie and COM on the way out to the nest

 

As COM and Mr. Koppie approached the nest, Audrey, who had gotten out of dodge when the gentlemen started out toward her, reappeared.  Look closely, and you will see her approaching them.  She is to the right of the nest just at the junction of the water and land:

 

Craig Koppie, COM and Audrey hovering around the nest

 

Mr. Koppie went up the ladder with his bag, which held a container to retrieve two of the eggs.  He had made a decision to leave one egg in the nest so if Tom and Audrey did not take to their foster chicks immediately, they would still have the urge to sit on the egg and would remain at or near the nest to facilitate bonding with the new arrivals:

 

Craig Koppie on his way up COM’s really cool ladder

 

In the meantime, Audrey was not far away and was not happy:

 

Audrey is not happy

 

Audrey on alert

 

The first thing that Mr. Koppie did was to remove two of the eggs.  He placed them gently into a container so the eggs may be examined at a later time to try to determine why they did not hatch:

 

Preparing to remove two eggs under Audrey’s watchful eye

 

Placing one of the eggs in a container to preserve for further analysis

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Koppie’s faithful companion, Crazy Osprey Man, was waiting patiently with his precious cargo:

 

Faithful helper at the ready

 

Mr. Koppie brought the bag containing the eggs down, and carefully brought the bag containing the chicks up the ladder to begin the transfer.  Audrey is still noisily protesting and not leaving the area:

 

First chick going in

 

Second chick going in

 

Check out Mr. Koppie’s right hand!

 

Up you go!

 

Almost home

 

After both chicks were successfully placed in the nest, Mr. Koppie took some photos:

 

Craig Koppie taking photos of the foster chicks in their new nest

 

Literally within seconds of Mr. Koppie and COM heading back to the dock from the nest, Audrey arrived back at the nest:

 

Audrey has a surprise (actually 2 surprises) waiting

 

After both foster chicks were safely in the nest, back on shore there was more work to be done:

 

Mission accomplished and the media frenzy begins

 

Craig Koppie being interviewed by Sally Kidd, national correspondent for Hearst Television’s Washington News Bureau:

 

Craig Koppie is interviewed by Sally Kidd

 

You can watch the video feed from the ospreycam of Mr. Koppie making the transfer at “Tom & Audrey’s Osprey Adoption” on YouTube.

 

It was so much fun to watch Audrey come back to the nest after the chicks were placed.  She landed and kind of looked casually down into the nest, then did a double-take and looked again with some confusion.  Being the consummate mother, she settled right down into the nest and began caring for her new babies.  Mr. Koppie was ecstatic!  He sure loves his birds and a success story.  Look closely and you can see a small head:

 

Take a close look and you can see a little head

 

I am sure you are wondering where Tom was while all of the excitement was going on.  So were we!  But not very long after things settled down, the proud father returned, only he didn’t know he was a proud father until he looked down in the nest:

 

Tom arrives back at the nest

 

After a few angonizing hours, everyone was fed, and life with chicks at the nest began for another season.  And weren’t we all delighted at such an incredible outcome?

So that is our osprey adoption story in a nutshell!

I have some great photos for the next blog, and will attempt to answer many of the questions that have been popping up from our faithful camera watchers and blog readers.  In the meantime, make sure you vote for your preferred pair of names for our babies.  Please go to https://surveymonkey.com/r/ospreynames to vote for your favorite!

Until next time, we remain-

Crazy Osprey Man, Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man and Osprey Girl

Here is our latest winner of the “Where in the World Are Tom and Audrey” contest:

Interns from the University of Richmond’s Spatial Analysis Lab watching the ospreycam

 

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://chesapeakeconservancy.org today.  Thanks very much!