I spoke with our ranger this morning about the work near the Osprey Cam, and he said the only thing that remains to be done near the cam is putting the Osprey Cam equipment back into place so we can get the cam up. It will take a few days to do this since some of the equipment is heavy (like the solar panel) and requires a couple people to do the work, but at least it looks like the road work around the cam is done and we’re almost ready to go live.

Our ranger said that this morning he saw eagles on the Osprey Cam platform, so it’s possible our osprey parents have begun migration. Normally if an osprey couple has chicks, the mother will leave for migration first around late August, then the father will stay until his young are ready to leave (usually in September). Then once the young birds strike out for South or Central America, the father osprey will leave too. All the family members will migrate separately, although the young siblings might start out together.

Since our 2008 osprey couple did not have chicks this year, it’s likely they will both leave early, since the male does not have any chicks he has to watch over and help feed. So when our cam comes back online, our birds might be already gone.

But regardless of whether our ospreys are still at the cam or not, the fact is migration season has begun. As I write this, Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania is reporting that they’ve already seen 28 ospreys migrate overhead since August 6. Be sure to visit the Hawk Mountain website to keep tabs on the numbers during their annual Autumn Hawk Watch.

Also, several websites are tracking young ospreys on their first migration. You can visit the Nethy and Deshar website to follow the two osprey fledglings from the famous Loch Garten osprey nest in Scotland. The birds have already begun their migration to Africa, and one of the siblings (Deshar) started out by heading over the North Sea, then realized it was a mistake and turned back toward land. Fortunately he’s now back on track and about to cross the English Channel — ahead of his sister — on his way to Africa for the winter. See the migration map.

You can follow the Loch Garten birds using Google Earth, which is an amazing piece of software that Google offers for free. Visit the Google Earth page on the Loch Garten site for instructions about opening their migration map in the Google Earth software.

Also in Scotland, Logie and her chicks are being tracked on Roy Dennis’ website. At this stage they have lost track of Logie, but they’re not sure if something happened to her or if her transmitter malfunctioned.

By the way, Roy Dennis — one of the world’s leading experts on ospreys (especially from England and Scotland) — has a new book out called “A Life of Ospreys.” You can order one by emailing the address on his website; you can also get one from Amazon or from a third-party bookseller in the U.S. (look for “used and new” on the Amazon page). It’s a beautiful book, and if you love ospreys, I think you’ll definitely enjoy it.

In addition to the Scottish birds being tracked, Rob Bierregaard, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is tracking a set of young ospreys from the East Coast of the U.S., and you can follow his tracking updates on his 2008 osprey migration web page.

As for other osprey nests, it was a bit of a tough year in some places. For those who remember me mentioning the two Finland Osprey Cams, one of the cams had an unfortunate tragedy. A white-tailed eagle (the closest cousin to our American bald eagle) came in and attacked the youngest chick. The next day it returned and took the chick away. Here is a photo of the eagle.

At the Woods Hole Osprey Cam nest in Massachusetts they also had some tragedy. A few days after Rob Bierregaard successfully tagged Sheri — one of the three fledglings at the nest — she suddenly appeared in the nest in some kind of distress. She was then found on the ground with two severely injured legs and had to be euthanized. The only guess is that while learning to dive for food, she misjudged her target and possibly hit some rocks or another hard surface.

Unfortunately even after young ospreys survive the tough competition in their home nests, they then have to face the dangers of learning to fish, learning to fly, and migrating thousands of miles to a distant land. It’s a tough world out there.

As for our nests, I did want to remind folks that for now, you can still see our Eagle Cam on the WildCam.com website (registration is free). We share our camera feed with them, and since they have a bit more money than we do, they’ve decided to keep the cam feed up for now. So be sure to check in occasionally. If you do, you might see one of our eagle parents checking in at the nest. We have no idea where the big weeds came from in the bottom of the nest, but they’ll probably be gone when we go live again in November. For now, it looks like the eagles have a little garden at their nest, which is 80 feet up in the air!

As a final treat, I did want to mention that photographer Bob Quinn was out at Blackwater Refuge earlier this month and captured some wonderful photos of our summertime wildlife. Thanks again to Bob for sharing his photos with us.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, osprey cam, osprey cams, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

Since we don’t have much to say about our nest, I thought I’d use this post to talk about some of the other osprey action that we’ve been monitoring. If you didn’t see my earlier post on the cam page about Bob Quinn’s recent osprey banding trip, then be sure to check out his gallery. Bob went on an osprey banding trip at Patuxent River Park in southern Maryland. The park’s osprey population has had a tough year. First, several big storms caused quite a few nest failures, and then a Great Horned Owl has been not only killing osprey chicks at the park but also killing some of the osprey mothers. In fact, while Bob was on the boat banding ospreys, his group found a dead female osprey in the water under one of the water platforms. Pretty amazing to think of an owl taking out full-grown adult ospreys.

Speaking of Bob’s photos, I did want to point out a few of his shots that were particularly interesting because they show some wonderful close-ups. In this first shot, you can see two chicks hunkered down inside the nest. Osprey young know instinctively to lay low in the nest when they hear their parents call out in alarm; this technique works well since their feathers blend in with the sticks and help camouflage them.

In this second shot, you can see a great close-up of a banded youngster (see the band on its left foot). Notice that the osprey chick has scale-like bumps on its lower legs and feet. These scales are called spicules and they help the osprey hold onto slippery fish. Also, notice that the youngster has orange eyes; the eyes will turn yellow once the bird matures. Finally notice the tan tips on its feathers, which is another sign that the bird is young. The feathers will eventually turn all brown once the bird reaches sexual maturity.

In this third shot, we get a great view of an osprey chick’s blood feathers. When feathers first develop, they are encased in a sheath that is made of keratin (like your fingernails). This sheath protects the feathers and feeds them with blood until the feathers are fully developed — hence the name blood feathers. Once the feather has developed, the sheath falls off (or is pulled off by the bird) and the feather unfurls. In this photo, we can see the blood (the blue color) feeding the developing feathers. Anyone handling a bird with blood feathers must be careful, because if one of them tears, the feather can bleed quite a lot.

In this fourth shot, we see a mother osprey skimming the water with her talons to cool down; this is a behavior that is common during the summer. In fact, on June 11, the Connecticut Audubon Osprey Cam reported similar behavior by their osprey adults. Their website said, “With the intense heat of the last several days, the adults have been using their bodies as an umbrella to shield the four chicks from the sun. We’ve also seen the adults skimming the surface of the water to wet their breast feathers and return to the nest to cool the chicks down.” It’s interesting to see how the adult ospreys use water to help keep themselves and their chicks cool.

And in this final shot, we see a wonderful example of the osprey’s third eyelid — or nictitating membrane. The ospreys use these translucent eyelids to clean their eyes and to protect them from harm — such as while fishing or feeding their young.

In addition to Bob’s incredible osprey shots, I also have a couple osprey tales to share. First, the Marine Study Nature Area in New York has an online Osprey Cam where they have four healthy chicks. Unfortunately, the youngest chick got entangled in a discarded balloon ribbon and a rescue had to be arranged, which you can see on YouTube. The Marine Study Nature Area website also links to a BBC article on the dangers of balloons in the environment. Be sure to read about the need to eliminate discarded balloons for the sake of wildlife.

Another interesting osprey story happened a couple weeks ago at an osprey nest in St. Michael’s Harbor in Maryland, where the nest fell into the water. Fortunately, some of the workers at the nearby Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum saw it happen and managed to get to the chick immediately. They took care of it overnight and then it was transported to Tri-State Bird Rescue by Suzi Feldhuhn, a friend of ours who is a volunteer at Tri-State. On the following Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to renest the single chick in a neighboring nest that already had two chicks. Suzi told us it was a very successful renesting with the chick being accepted by its new family. As for the original pair that lost their nest, they’re in the area and are building a new nest on a nearby platform.

Suzi was kind enough to send us the two photos below showing the chick being placed in its new nest and then sitting with its new siblings. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.

Many osprey nests around the Net are starting to see young birds fledging. As we mentioned on the cam page, the chicks at the North Carolina Osprey Cam and Kentucky Osprey Cam have begun to fledge, and the four chicks at the Connecticut Osprey Cam are also close to going. Here is a great shot showing one of them hovering above the nest. We wish all these young birds the best of luck as they begin venturing out into the world.

Partial Closure of Wildlife Drive

As a final note, for those cam watchers who might be planning a trip to Blackwater Refuge this summer, I wanted to remind you that a portion of the Wildlife Drive at the Refuge will be closed for about two months while we repair an impoundment that protects the Drive from the Blackwater River. Only the first section of the Drive will be closed, so you will still be able to access the latter section of the road. Also, while we have the road closed, we also plan to repair our Marsh Edge Trail boardwalk, so hopefully by the time all the work is done, we’ll have an improved trail and Wildlife Drive. Read our press release for more information about what services will be available if you come.

Thanks again to all those who are sending in cam images to our galleries. We don’t update the galleries as often these days because the action is slow, but we will update them soon and we appreciate any images of interesting action that you see.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
wildlife refuge, ospreys, osprey cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

First, our couple: As we said on the cam page, we’ve seen more mating and more nest building from the ospreys, although at this late date, we really don’t expect more eggs. But nevertheless, it’s good to see our pair still together and bonding. If they decide to return to this same nest next year, then hopefully they will have a strong foundation as a couple and have success raising a family.

Some folks did ask about the old eggshell in the nest — that is one of the eggs the crow broke when we lost our clutch. It’s likely the shell is empty at this point.

Other Osprey Nests

In case you weren’t aware, the Connecticut Audubon Osprey Cam now has four chicks, which is an amazing achievement. This couple is an experienced pair, so we’re hoping they can handle such a crowded nest. For those who were not with us back in 2006, the Blackwater Osprey Cam had four chicks during that season and all managed to fledge, which is somewhat unusual in the osprey world as often one or two of the chicks won’t make it to fledging age when there are four. Visit our Cam Central page to see our gallery and web log from the 2006 Osprey Cam season.

One more thing I wanted to mention about the Connecticut Osprey Cam: This is one of the rare nests we’ve seen where the father regularly feeds the mother food.

Another nest I’ve been watching is the North Carolina Osprey Cam, and since they’ve moved that cam into a better position, we’re getting to see some nice shots of the family.

In this first shot I captured, we can see the whole family together. The father is nearest the camera and the mother is next to him (see her brown “necklace”). In the nest is the couple’s two chicks and one unhatched egg. Notice the chick has a white stripe down its back — when the chicks are lying in the nest, the stripes help camouflage them by making them look like another stick.

In this next shot we get a better look at the stripe and also a look at the oldest chick’s crop, where extra food is stored for later consumption.

The third shot shows the youngest chick flapping its wings and shows the mother watching the youngster.

And in the fourth shot we get a good close-up of the female taking oil from her preening gland (near the base of her tail), which she will use to clean and waterproof her feathers.

Another interesting nest is the Kentucky Osprey Cam where they have three chicks. Be sure to check out their excellent video clips that make you feel like you’re in the nest. This cam offers a good illustration of the second stage of chick development. First, the osprey chicks come out cute and light colored, but then they enter what’s called their reptilian stage when they look like little dinosaurs, and in this photo you can see the oldest chick is in that stage now.

For more osprey cams on the Net, see my April 19 post. And I did want to point out that one of the Finland osprey cams has moved to a new URL. It’s the cam I said had such a fantastic view, and you can now find it here; just click on the osprey photo. And remember Finland time is about 7 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the U.S.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
wildlife refuge, ospreys, osprey cams, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

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

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

If you’re new to our Osprey Cam, I urge you to read our Osprey Facts page and also our Osprey Cam Q&A page, both of which provide lots of interesting information about ospreys in the Chesapeake Bay area, as well as information about our osprey cam setup. And if you’re a teacher, I should also point out that we have an osprey curriculum guide on our Cam Central page.

Ospreys have rebounded from the deadly era of DDT in the 1950s and 1960s and are now common around the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s a perfect habitat for them — lots of fish in shallow water. Although we love our bald eagles dearly, many of us have a special fondness for our ospreys, which are spunky raptors that can be a lot of fun to watch.

2008 Osprey Cam

At this point we strongly believe we have a new osprey pair at the nest this year. As our cam watchers from last year remember, the 2007 season was the first season in our 7 years of the Osprey Cam that we did not see chicks at the nest. A female intruder lured our male away, and our resident female was stuck alone with the three eggs. After a while she had to leave to feed, and while she was gone, a crow came in and quickly punctured all three eggs.

Normally ospreys — like bald eagles — are very loyal to their partners and nests, but the aggressive intruder was enough of a disruption to our nest that the pair failed to produce a brood. When ospreys and eagles fail during the nesting season, they sometimes “divorce” or move to another nest the following year. This season, we did not see our normal pair return on time, and instead this new pair — what looks like a young pair — took the nest. They have been slow to claim it and slow to build the stick portion of their home. Also, volunteers and staff at the Refuge have noticed that they are a bit more nervous about people being on the road that runs in front of the cam nest — a road called the Wildlife Drive. All of this evidence makes us think they are a new, and possibly young, couple.

Cam watchers have asked if our couple is late in producing an egg; the answer is yes, they are later than we are used to, but they’re not too late and still have plenty of time to produce eggs. Obviously we would prefer to see eggs soon as it will give the chicks plenty of time to perfect their flying and fishing skills before they have to migrate in September or early October. But we do feel hopeful about this couple because they’ve been building the nest and mating frequently, and the male has been dutifully bringing fish to the female to show he’s a good provider, so things look promising.

Cam watchers have also asked about the dark blobs they see in the nest. Those are balls of marsh sod — the ospreys like them in the nest, kind of as a soft filler on top of the hard sticks. We’ve recently seen photos of the ospreys using their chests to mold the nest cup, which is the area where we often see the sod. This is another good sign that the ospreys are getting ready for an egg.

Osprey Videos

I was out at the Refuge last week — on the Wildlife Drive — and captured some video of our cam male bringing in a fish. He sat above the camera and ate the head first (a common habit for eagles and ospreys) and then finally went down into the nest where the female was waiting for him to share the meal. It was interesting to see how long the fish kept flapping even as it was being eaten! Made me feel sorry for the fish. :-)

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After I left the cam nest, I happened upon a different osprey perched in a tree. In this clip you can see how an osprey cleans its beak after eating a fish dinner. The ospreys and eagles on our osprey platform sometimes use the side of the cam box to clean their beaks in this same way. Also in this clip you can see how ospreys slice (or relieve themselves). Both adults and chicks are able to shoot it rather far, which keeps the nest tidy.

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One thing I should point out about the video I took at the cam platform is that I recorded it from inside my car. As I mentioned earlier, we have noticed that our new osprey pair gets very nervous when they see people near their nest. If you visit the Refuge and go on our Wildlife Drive to see the Osprey Cam, we ask that you observe the ospreys from your car. The birds don’t seem bothered by cars (which are just objects to them), but when you exit the car and stand near the road that leads to their nest, they recognize you as “people” and get upset and call out or fly away. So we’re asking visitors to please keep this in mind if they visit the cam nest this spring. And you’ll know you’re at the cam nest because right behind it is our Visitor Center off in the distance.

Osprey Photos

In this log entry, I also have some osprey photos to share. These were sent in by some very generous folks who recently visited Blackwater Refuge.

In this first shot, you can see our two cam ospreys bringing in new material to the nest. Thanks to Tom Lorsung for this shot.

And in this second shot, Scott Young captured a wonderful image of two ospreys at one of our water platforms. Thanks also to Scott.

And be sure to check out Bob Quinn’s recent osprey photos, in case you didn’t see my note on the cam page.

Technical Issue

I wanted to address one technical issue. We are now keeping both the Eagle Cam and Osprey Cam at 30-second updates. In the past, due to limitations with our satellite dish bandwidth, we had to keep one cam at 30 seconds and the other at 60 seconds. But recently we upgraded our dish modem, and the new technology allow us to get a higher bandwidth limit on our account, so we can now keep both our cams at 30-second updates all year long.

I’ve had several cam watchers ask if we can go faster than 30 seconds — we probably could but it makes it hard for our visitors using dial-up to watch. If it’s less than 30 seconds, the image doesn’t have enough time to load before the next image arrives on a dial-up account, so 30 seconds will be the lowest we will go with refresh times.

Osprey Activity on the Web

If you’re looking for other Osprey Cams to check out, I can point you to several that have eggs or recent activity:

Connecticut Audubon Osprey Cam
Montezuma NWR Osprey Cam in upstate New York
Minnesota Osprey Cam

Finland Osprey Cam — the best view of any osprey cam (click on Kohde 1)
Finland Osprey Cam

(Note: sääksi is “osprey” in Finnish)

Rutland Osprey Cam in central England
Lake District Osprey Cam in northern England

Loch Garten Osprey Cam in Scotland
Loch of the Lowes Osprey Cam in Scotland (click on osprey photo)

One thing I wanted to point out is the nest at the Montezuma NWR Osprey Cam. We keep saying our Blackwater ospreys had a lot of work to do to rebuild their nest, but look at the miracle the Montezuma ospreys performed in just six days. Busy birds!

We want to thank all those who have been sending in photos of our 2008 osprey pair, and we thank everyone for joining us for another year with the Osprey Cam. We very much hope our new couple can produce chicks for everyone to enjoy.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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