First, I wanted to say that we’ll try to get the Gallery updated in the next couple of days, so everyone can see all the photos. But basically the short version of what happened is we think the heavy, cold rain that has been hitting the area hard was too much for the couple (especially the female), so she left the eggs alone for over an hour — twice — this afternoon, and eventually a crow came in and broke them.

This storm has caused major problems throughout Maryland with quite a bit of flooding and coastal flood warnings in the county where Blackwater Refuge is located. But on top of that rain, we also had very cool temperatures, and this appeared to be too much for our parents.

The mother stuck with the eggs through the worst of it today, but this afternoon she suddenly got up and disappeared for about an hour. At that time, we became worried about the eggs’ viability because the temperature was very cool. She then returned (we think it was the female) but then disappeared again. During the second long absence, a crow came in several times and eventually broke and possibly took part of the eggs. The egg remnants you see in the nest are the remains of what the crow did not take. We have seen one of the parents (probably the female) coming and sitting where the eggs had been. We saw this last year too, but eventually our female realized the eggs were gone.

We are honestly surprised that this happened, because even though we thought we had a young couple, they appeared to be doing very well. It’s quite possible that if we hadn’t had such a cold storm, the female might have made it through the full incubation. But sometimes young parents do things like this, and lose their eggs to predators.

I did want to point out that although we lost our eggs last year in an identical fashion (to a crow), our couple last year was impacted by a third osprey — an intruder female — and our male abandoned the nest for a period of time. When the female eventually left to fish for herself, a crow came in and broke the eggs. We do not think that happened this year because we had been seeing both parents regularly — including a couple of times on Monday. So the male intruder we mentioned previously in the web log did not appear to be a factor in this unfortunate turn of events today. It was more likely the weather.

Cam watchers have asked about a second clutch. Sometimes raptor parents will lay a second clutch if they lose their first, but since our couple was late in nesting this year, and since they appear to be young and a bit inexperienced, I’m not really expecting a second clutch. I may be wrong, but I think we’ll see the ospreys hanging around the nest for the rest of the summer, maybe even mating occasionally, but not producing any chicks for this year.

I think the best we can hope for is that they will return next year and give it another try. If they do, they’ll be more experienced and possibly more determined to stick with the eggs no matter what kind of weather they face.

No matter what happens the rest of this season, we’ll keep the Osprey Cam online. Like last year, we will keep it up to see what the ospreys do; and if they are not around as much, we might even see the return of our bald eagles on the platform. It’s true that we do turn off the Eagle Cam once the eaglets leave for good, but that is only because once the eagle family is gone, we see very little wildlife on the Eagle Cam (the occasional squirrel or Blue jay). But we like to leave the Osprey Cam on all year because the platform attracts a lot of bird life, and it’s enjoyable to watch no matter what the season.

We’ll keep the web log open for now, just because we’re not absolutely sure how our osprey pair will deal with this unexpected development. And we’re sorry for all our cam watchers who were really excited about the prospect of osprey chicks this year — especially since we were without them last year for the first time since we came online with our Osprey Cam back in 2001. But it was not meant to be.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, osprey cam, osprey eggs, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

It’s now been more than three days since the laying of our third egg, so we think we can safely say that our full clutch is here. For those who are keeping track, here is our scorecard:

1st egg laid: 04/25/08
Possible hatch: 06/02/08

2nd egg laid: 04/28/08
Possible hatch: 06/05/08

3rd egg laid: 05/01/08
Possible hatch: 06/08/08

This means our eggs were laid about two weeks later than our 2006 nest (our last successful nest), so that’s not too bad as far as late starts go. A normal osprey clutch is 2-3 eggs, so this clutch size is normal, and if all of them hatch, three chicks will certainly keep our parents hopping.

Speaking of the late start our pair made in nesting this year, back when we first saw our pair on the nest, we mentioned that we thought we saw two different males mating with our female in some of the mating shots. But our couple seemed to settle down quickly and no real drama appeared at the nest, so we assumed that if a second male was around, he left.

On Saturday, I was at the Refuge and saw a third bird try to land on the platform, while our couple was there together. I happened to be taping footage from the live camera when this particular event occurred, and after looking at the footage, it appears that it was a male that tried to land on the nest. And in the footage below you’ll see our female chased him off. (Left-click on the video link to play the WMV file or right-click and choose “Save Target As” to download)

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Also, in Bob Quinn’s latest trip to the Refuge, you can see photos of two ospreys flying together. Bob said these two birds were chasing each other in the general area of the cam nest, and since they both appear to be male, this might be our father and the intruder.

So what does this mean? We’re not exactly sure. It could be a young single male that has been checking out the nest, or it could be a returning former chick that is seen as a threat (since there are eggs in the nest and this might not be his parents), or it could be our second male from the beginning of the season.

We don’t like seeing our couple disturbed by another osprey, especially since our pair seem to be progressing nicely with their domestic routine. We hope that the male will get the message that this nest is now taken with our resident pair. But it’s possible he might come back and try to land again, especially if he isn’t mated and has lots of time on his hands, so to speak.

As for our resident mother and father, we’re very happy to see that they’ve been doing an excellent job as a couple. While I was watching them at the Refuge Visitor Center Saturday, I saw a nice changeover between the pair, and you can see that in the video below.

Our father likes to sit on top of the camera arm, and I’ve seen him sitting there with a fish and even with sod, and sometimes you see pieces of fish or sod fall down in front of the camera. :-)

On Saturday, I saw him eating a fish up there, and the female was calling to him to bring some of it down into the nest for her. Finally he obliged, and she quickly took the meal and then flew around to the other side of the platform to eat it. Once she had her meal, the father settled down on the eggs and took his turn at incubation. So our couple is doing just what we would hope, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that they will continue on this way until early June when our eggs should begin hatching.

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Eggs

We can tell from our cam images that our eggs appear to have variations in their coloring. Two of them look like they have a rusty color and the third egg appears quite bright in color. Here is a shot I wanted to share from the Connecticut Audubon Osprey Cam, where they now have four eggs. This photo provides a better close up of osprey eggs, and you can see how all the eggs have a mottled or speckled appearance. Also notice that while three appear rusty or pinkish in color, one is brighter than the others — like ours.

Noted ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent once called osprey eggs “the handsomest of all the hawks’ eggs” due to their color variations, and osprey eggs have been among the most sought after prizes by egg collectors for many years. In fact, in England and Scotland, this egg popularity helped lead to the catastrophic collapse of osprey populations there, and they are just beginning to recover.

Now that our full clutch is here, our osprey parents will share in the incubation duties, although the female will do most of the incubating. About every hour, the eggs will be turned and then returned to a spot against the parent’s brood patch, which is a bare area on the bird’s stomach where hot blood is close to the surface of the skin and extra heat is generated. Both the osprey parents have a brood patch, although the female’s is larger.

Incubation for ospreys at our platform seems to be about 38-39 days, so that’s what I based our potential hatch dates on, but technically hatching could come anywhere from 35-43 days, depending on the egg’s development.

Thanks to all those who have been sending in shots for our Gallery. If you’re new to our cams and you wonder how people submit photos, you can find instructions for sending in photos here. We’ll try to update the Gallery again within the next week.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
ospreys, wildlife refuge, osprey cam, osprey eggs, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland