female still very flat and deep on nest and often flies off platform when boats sup's, or kayaks approach and this can be quite often since the new Solitudes community is open and full for the season.
as I always felt, my hatch date is way off but sure was nice to see this chick flying. i dont know what happened to the second chick but it was always elusive in the nest and may have been caught in something.
7-13-18, i clearly saw 2 chicks but since that day consistently seeing just one. today one large chick was standing alone on the nest with an adult that appeared to be the male perched in a live tree across the channel. perhaps the chicks are much older than i thought, it seems so by the chicks size, and perhaps one has fledged and momma was looking after it, time will tell but i do think my hatch date may be off.
female on nest around 3 pm today and as i passed on boat she fussed at me and flew around the nest area while one chick peeked over the nest edge. still just seeing one chick and guess that's all there is.
finally saw one chick today, i had to watch for quite awhile until dad brought a fish and mom started feeding. the adult female stands on the nest rim often, looking totally uninterested in the nest but she is so upset with passing boats I assumed she did have a chick, it just often looks like she doesn't. and the height of the nest makes it trickier to see also.
have seen shading behavior and guarding but no chicks or feeding behavior yet. i do feel there are chicks just bad timing on my part. female is very aggressive when you get anywhere close to the nest via boat, she flies off nest if you pass by
one very deep in the nest as i passed by on the boat, and she did not complain about my presence as she usually does. her mate was perched in a tree and was calling to other ospreys kenneling overhead.
1:30 today one osprey deep in the shallow nest appears to be incubating. it got up, dug around, possibly turned an egg and settled back down flat and deep.
one osprey on the nest during today's off and on rain storm. it appears there is some sort of debris hanging off the platform. it did not look like the the osprey was deep enough to be incubating.
ospreys on the platform today. the geese either hatched goslings or they were forced off the nest by something, possibly the 3yr old bald eagle that is enjoying the pine trees close by..but nice to see this pair got their nest back in plenty of time to incubate eggs..lets see how it goes now.
At 4 pm today I took my border collie mix to the woods where the osprey from this platform usually perch and I saw the female osprey up in the tree. there were numerous pairs of geese along the marsh area. I hope this osprey pair also finds a suitable tree to build a nest since the geese are on their platform this season.
end of season: I saw the adult female in a tree near the last seen juvenile on same day 8-17-17. did not see the adult male after that date but didn't get the boat down to the nest site often due to storms
on the 25th of July there were 4 young on the nest... one possibly from next door cottage nest #6182, yesterday just one youngster taking a nap with 2 others in trees
did not see any signs of chicks late today but female was on nest calling for food, an osprey was nearby fishing in the creek, might have been the male
no doubt the chicks hatched a few days ago but finally today I was able to confirm both adults on nest and feeding behavior. really hopeful this pair can raise chicks to fledge this season.
I have been watching and have seen no action for days and then surprise, today there was an osprey incubating. I even got out my scope to be certain. the platform is easy to see but the ospreys territory is not ,due to trees, guess they were there all along. maybe even incubating before today, this seemed to happen last year also. but then the people spent too much time on the dock and the osprey abandoned the nest. maybe this year will be different.
I have been watching this pair hanging out back in the tree line away from the platform. There has been a pontoon boat tied to the dock right at the nest and I wonder if that was what caused the birds to abandon the eggs. I can only see the second bird from a boat and so most likely there were 2 osprey for this nest all along, the one was simply not visible to me until I got out on the water. perhaps someone has been spending long periods of time at the dock..it appears so by the crab pots etc. People do not realize the disturbance to a nesting osprey pair and many people put osprey platforms on their docks .I see many unused dock platforms on the waterways of Sussex county. Today just before sunset the pair was hanging out together on the nest.
A bird was back on the nest apparently incubating this morning. later in the day I saw the bird fly back to the platform, perch a few minutes and then appear to drop down onto eggs. I have not seen a mate for this nest in some time and I have to wonder if this bird is attempting to incubate alone?
Early in the day I saw an osprey incubating eggs on this nest but when I returned later in the day the bird was up on the platform but not incubating and I saw no mate nearby. I watched for about 15 minutes and the osprey never got back on the eggs.
This platform is on a very long dock that is extremely close to and directly across from a new home construction site. The birds have been flushed off the platform constantly but somehow they settled in and I just noticed they are incubating! The construction must be bearable! Lets see how they do. They are most likely the birds from a 2015 unproductive nearby snag nest that was destroyed during the winter.
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