In this final blog entry for the season, we’re posting our last set of videos, which I think you’re really going to enjoy because they offer some wonderfully entertaining shots of our chicks in flight.

But first we wanted to give you an update on what will happen on the website once the ospreys leave. This entry will close our Osprey Cam Web Log for the 2010 season, but we’ll still keep posting updates about our birds on the cam page, and we’ll still accept gallery photos. Also, we will still keep the cam online throughout the fall and winter because once the ospreys leave, we expect to see bald eagles using the platform as a riverside perch. In fact, we’ll likely see our Eagle Cam parents there, so we’ll keep the cam online to watch for all the interesting birds that might visit once the ospreys have left town.

We’re not completely sure if our female has left for migration, although it’s certainly time for her to do so. We might see large adult ospreys on the nest as the summer ends, but there is a small chance that some of those could even be visiting ospreys that are migrating through Blackwater Refuge on their way down south. As fall approaches, many bird species are beginning their southern migration, and mid-Atlantic and northern-based ospreys are in that group.

If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the migration action here on the East Coast, an interesting website to check out is the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary website. Hawk Mountain is a beautiful piece of land in Pennsylvania that was protected because it sees so many migrating raptors passing over its mountain ridges. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary has held an annual autumn hawk watch since 1934, and they keep an ongoing count on their website regarding the birds that pass over during migration season. Be sure to check out their 2010 Hawk Count to see how many ospreys and bald eagles they’ve seen. September and October are the busiest migration months for ospreys.

Final Videos of the Season

We have some very entertaining videos to share that show our chicks learning how to fly. But our first video is actually a feeding video that gives us one last look at our 2010 osprey family together at meal time. In this clip from July 18, our productive father osprey brings in another fish (notice that he’s eaten the head, which is common behavior for the father), and the mother promptly takes it from him and begins feeding Hope. This is one of the few times where Hope’s siblings weren’t interested in the meal, so it’s fun to see Hope having a private dinner.

In our second clip, which is from July 25, we see the mother osprey take off and leave the father in the nest with the chicks. Dad isn’t as fond of feeding the youngsters as Mom is, so the chicks are left to peck at the fish themselves. Finally one of our older chicks (Hooper or Holland) decides the windy weather is giving her the perfect opportunity to try lifting off from the nest. The chick gets some good air time, although watching her makes me a little nervous because this is the kind of situation where a chick could get blown out prematurely. But the chick does a good job in maintaining control and lands safely on the nest.

In our third clip, which is from July 29, Hope is in front, flapping his wings, when an older sibling comes flying down from the camera arm. Then another sibling at the front of the nest begins flapping and manages to get some air time during another windy day. This activity inspires Hope to try more flapping exercises. Then the chick that came down from the camera arm launches into the wind and rises high above the nest. She does a great job keeping aloft, but because she lacks control, the other ospreys in the nest are ducking and weaving as she tries to stick her landing. Very funny to watch!

And for our last video, we have a special treat. When I was at the Refuge in early August, I saw our two older chicks out in the marsh together, sitting on two poles we use for marsh restoration. I was able to capture a video of one of the chicks flying from the marsh back to the Osprey Cam platform. The chick was still mastering her landing skills, so you’ll notice she had to make a couple passes at the platform before she was able to land. The osprey chick that was already in the platform at the time was Hope.

Natural Osprey Nest

Some of our readers might remember that back in May, I mentioned discovering a natural osprey nest (meaning in a tree rather than a human-made platform) along our Wildlife Drive at the Refuge. In July, I was very happy to discover that this nest produced at least two chicks this season, and I posted a video on our YouTube Channel showing them at the nest. One chick is sitting on a branch near the nest and one is flapping in the nest. Hopefully this success means we’ll see these parents back next year.

Delaware Ospreys

And our final offering is a wonderful photo I wanted to share from one of our cam watchers named Liz. Liz said she had been in Delaware and caught this photo of an osprey nest near Bethany Beach, which is a favorite beach of mine since I spent many summer vacations there while growing up. The ospreys appear to have a nice looking nest in this photo, which seems to show three chicks and the two parents. Thanks, Liz!

We want to thank all our cam watchers who gave us their time throughout the 2010 Osprey Cam season. It was a wonderfully successful year with three healthy chicks and a pair of very devoted parents. Thanks to all those who sent in their photos and emails, and who checked us out on our new Facebook page where we sometimes shared osprey tidbits.

Please make plans to join us again next March, when we hope that both parents will return for a new nesting season at Blackwater. Stay safe!

Until then,
Lisa – webmaster
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Tags:
osprey, wildlife refuge, osprey cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

As most of our readers know, all three of our chicks have officially fledged (see the Gallery). And if that wasn’t enough excitement, on Friday we saw an Osprey Cam photo that appeared to have two or three fish in it. If there is more than one fish at the nest, there’s a good chance one of the fledglings possibly found one of them or even caught one. Some fledglings learn to fish rather quickly and others struggle with it, but there is a chance one of our older chicks might have snagged a meal. Fortunately the parents are still providing plenty of fish to assist the chicks until they learn to master fishing, which they need to do before they strike out on migration in September.

We really have been impressed with our parents this season. There was very little bullying in the nest all season long, despite having a three-chick brood, and that was because the parents kept the fish coming and made sure that even our youngest chick was given his share of the meals. We really hope both our parents survive migration and their time down south — likely in South America or Latin America — and make it back to us next March for another wonderful year.

Loch of the Lowes

Speaking of migration, as we mentioned on the Osprey Cam page, it appears that the mother osprey at the Loch of the Lowes nest in Scotland has left for migration. As many of you may remember, a couple months ago this same female was very sick on the nest, and newspapers that had heralded her return in the spring were lamenting her potential demise. They believe this 24-year-old female has laid 56 eggs and seen 48 chicks fledge, making her one of the oldest and one of the most famous ospreys in Europe. So to see her recover from her illness, finish raising her chicks and now leave for migration — right on time — is truly amazing.

It’s reported that the mother osprey left on August 4 — possibly for Africa, which is where many European ospreys go — and someone watching the Loch of the Lowes cam captured a video clip that day showing the female landing on the nest, then flying off for what appeared to be a farewell tour of her summer home. It’s a very touching video to watch when you consider that this may be the last time she sees her beloved Scottish home. We wish her the best of luck now that she’s left on what will be a difficult migration for her physically. But we greatly hope to see her again next year.

As for our mother osprey, she will be leaving us soon. Female adults leave for migration first, and once they go it’s the father’s job to keep an eye on the fledglings until they’re ready to migrate about 3 or 4 weeks later. Father ospreys tend to be very loyal about hanging around until the last chick goes — even if that chick is rather tardy in leaving. The year we had four chicks fledge on the Osprey Cam, our poor father had to hang around quite a while before the smallest chick was ready to strike out on its own, but as soon as the chick did, the father left as well.

All of our osprey family will migrate alone. A couple of the chicks might start out together, but each family member will make the majority of the journey south on their own. The chicks will remember where they eventually stop, and they will likely revisit the same area when they head south again on future trips. Adults will return north to Blackwater next year, but the chicks will stay down south for an extra year, so our chicks won’t be back until 2012, most likely returning to the general area where they fledged.

If you’re interested in seeing where young ospreys go when they first migrate, be sure to check our Rob Bierregaard’s Osprey Migration tracking website. Rob tags young ospreys and follows their migration via satellite. He then posts maps online so you can see where the birds went. Often the birds start out flying all around their home nest, sometimes roaming quite far, then suddenly the urge to leave hits them, and they start heading south.

Unfortunately many young ospreys don’t make it. They get blown out to sea, they get tangled up in fishing line, they hit power lines, they get attacked by Great horned owls, and once they’re out of the U.S., there is the very real danger of being shot. The two main reasons thousands of ospreys are shot each year in Latin and South America is 1) because they’re raptors, and many farmers view all raptors as bad and 2) because many ospreys stop to fish at commercial fish farms, and the owners shoot them for threatening their product.

The good news is that if the immature ospreys can live long enough to become adults, the odds of them surviving and returning for multiple seasons improves.

Ospreys and Plastic

One other important osprey issue I wanted to mention in this update concerns the tremendous amount of garbage that we saw at osprey nests this year. We heard quite a few stories about ospreys being rescued from plastic bags and fishing line, and we even saw some osprey cam birds in need of rescue from the trash. Some examples:

• Back in May, one of our cam watchers sent me this photo of plastic netting in the Washington State Osprey Cam nest
• The ospreys at Oyster Cove on the Chesapeake Bay experienced a scary moment when the male osprey got a plastic bag caught around his neck. He eventually got it off, but one can imagine the disaster if it had filled with water while he was fishing
• On June 1, June 3 and again on June 25, chicks at the Kentucky Osprey Cam got entangled in fishing line accidentally brought to the nest by the parents. Rescues were performed to free all the chicks. Details and photos regarding the entanglement can be found in the summer edition of the Kentucky Naturalist News (PDF).

These are just a few examples of entanglement issues that were witnessed this year. The lesson here is that it’s important to dispose of plastics and fishing line properly. And even better — don’t use plastic bags at all, then they won’t end up in landfills or garbage dumps and find their way into the environment. And if you or anyone among your family or friends is an angler, please read the publication “Fishing Line Can Kill” (PDF), which discusses the impact of discarded fishing line on ospreys in the Chesapeake Bay — although the impact on ospreys is the same everywhere.

We’ll have some new videos in our next blog post, so stay tuned for some flapping/flying clips. And be sure to check out our Facebook page if you missed the incredible shot I posted from Tom Lorsung showing our mother osprey and two fledglings on the Osprey Cam nest.

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

As we announced on the cam page, we now have the official names for our chicks: Hooper, Holland and Hope. Hooper and Holland (1st and 2nd chicks) are two islands in the Chesapeake Bay that are near Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (see map), and Hope (3rd chick) is the name for our youngest bird because we hoped he would make it, although we weren’t sure. Thanks again to all our participants for their wonderful name suggestions!

First Flights

As we noted on our cam page and on our Facebook page, in the last few days our two older birds fledged and have been in and out of the nest at least a couple of times, which means they’ve both had a safe first flight. We did manage to catch images of our first chick landing after its first flight, and it was very fun to watch. Our chicks were right on time with their fledging, and now we just wait to see how soon before our youngest will fly. We’ll be keeping an eye out for that first shot of a completely empty nest.

Some chicks make their first flight and then don’t leave again for a while (too much excitement for them!) and others immediately take off for another flight, right after the first. It just depends on the chick’s personality and motivation. It did appear that our first fledgling stayed out of the nest for quite a while, but maybe that was because of the intense heat on Saturday and the fact that the chick was in need of some serious shade.

Sometimes chicks are motivated to leave the nest quickly because they’re not getting fed enough or because they’re getting bullied a lot by the other chicks. This isn’t a problem with our family this year, as we’ve seen very little bullying — especially considering the fact that we have three chicks. Our parents have done an outstanding job of providing an adequate amount of food, and it’s definitely reduced the amount of fighting in the nest.

But osprey chicks who are in less-than-ideal nests sometimes fly quickly and then spend time visiting neighboring osprey nests, where other adults will sometimes feed them — even though they are not one of the family. In the past, we’ve even seen strange chicks visiting our cam nest, although we’ve never seen our parents actually feed them. Still, it’s kind of interesting that osprey chicks feel comfortable visiting the nests of strange adults. Clearly they don’t seem to fear them.

Over the next six weeks, our chicks will be learning to fish and learning to improve their flying skills — which they must do quickly in order to be ready for migration sometime in September. One of the first places our chicks are likely to go is the Blackwater River (see photo), which is right in front of their nest. The Blackwater River is the heart of the Refuge, and it’s where our ospreys and eagles do most of their fishing.

Other Young Ospreys

Our friend Kim Taylor, who has been photographing an osprey nest on the Potomac River in Virginia, recently witnessed one of her chicks making its first few flights, and she shared some wonderful photos that give us an indication of what our chicks probably experienced for themselves. In this first photo (I’ve left the photos extra large in size), we see one of her chicks practicing the art of grasping items in the water, which will come in handy when it eventually learns to fish. Next we see one of her chicks sticking the landing at the home nest — what an intense look in that chick’s eyes. And finally, we see one of the chicks harassing a local Great blue heron — possibly the same heron that the mother eagle was harassing earlier this season (see previous blog post).

Also, Kim forwarded this incredible photo of her mother osprey going after a bald eagle with a fish in its talons. In the photo you can see the Wilson Bridge behind the birds. If you know anything about the Washington, DC area, you know how urban and crowded the Wilson Bridge area can be, and how amazing it is to see two raptors going at it right near the bridge. Wonderful shot!

I also wanted to share some “first flight” photos from our friend Russ Yeaton at Spring Point Light in South Portland, Maine. Russ follows an osprey family in the area, and these shots show his baby osprey taking its first flight. You can almost see the excitement that the bird has for its big adventure:

Photo 1 Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5

Osprey Video

Before we end this blog entry, we do have one video to share. This video is from June 27 — the last batch of videos we received from the Refuge, so the birds look a bit younger, but I wanted to share the clip because it highlights one of the reasons why our youngest bird has been doing so well. In addition to the parents bringing lots of food, our youngest is very wise about hanging back a bit during mealtime, so he doesn’t get pecked or harassed by his older siblings. He stays to the side and inches his way into the meal, but in a very non-aggressive way, so the older siblings don’t feel the need to chase him away. A very smart approach.

And if you noticed, I’ve started calling the youngest “he.” Based on their sizes, it does seem that our two older birds might be females since they appear to be about as big as Mom, while our youngest seems to be a bit smaller. So it’s possible that we have two females and a male in our 2010 brood.

Thanks again to all those who have been sending in photos of our youngsters as they take their first flights — we appreciate receiving the shots, and we’ll try to get the Gallery updated over the coming week.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
Support the Blackwater Cams
Contact

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