Nesting Diaries
ospreys arrived early enough to deter geese nesting this season
pair arrived 3-18, some tussling with a 3rd osprey over this weekend, male disappeared for 2 days, was reported on the ground nearby by TriState Bird rescue, i searched but osprey was reported to be getting some vertical height,female remained on nest alone, fishing for herself, male finally returned to nest at noon today, some loose feathers and slight rt wing droop but on nest, pair has arrived early enough to keep the geese off this platform that is not accessible for a goose excluder and land owner likes to feed the geese and actually wants the geese to use the platform, this nest site started the Whites Creek growing "goose stealing osprey platform" issues!
Observed one goose on nest today, appeared to be incubating although it is early in the season. She may have been holding her spot as there were 8 other canada geese in the marsh and water at the nest site.
adult male eating fish on snag at nest territory this evening, juvie at nest across the water (Inlet Pine Grove) calling for it to bring its fish but of course it did not share
adult male still at nest guard tree
sadly i should have checked the marsh waterline as a man observed the chick in the marsh for past 2 days, if was blown off nest! it was not fed by adult, and its gone today. i searched for it. it is rare for an adult osprey to feed a chick on the ground, so sad as it could have been saved had the man called the bird rescue
sadly i should have checked the marsh waterline as a man observed the chick in the marsh for past 2 days, if was blown off nest! it was not fed by adult, and its gone today. i searched for it. it is rare for an adult osprey to feed a chick on the ground, so sad as it could have been saved had the man called the bird rescue
have been checking nest regularly and today nest is empty, i am hoping this chick has fledged safely, i did not see it near nest, observed one adult drying wings on fave woods line, will continue to monitor
snag nest blew down May 1st wind storm forcing pair back to platform that had been vacated by geese the week earlier. Finally laid eggs today, I was thinking they may have laid eggs and lost them in the snag but appears not to be the case due to timing of incubation
bringing in sticks and sea lettuce, may be incubating on snag soon, ignoring their empty old platform
pair still on snag nest today, ignoring the old platform
pair still on snag nest today, ignoring the old platform
goose still on platform 4-23, checked back today, goose gone but pair had started a tiny snag nest across the waterway and today it is much larger and they look settled in...
geese nesting on platform, homeowner told me he built the tall platform "30-40 years ago for the geese" he feeds them and wants them there and believe they all know him and come back every year. i believe they do not leave but remain all year. they are resident geese who have now acclimated to using tall platforms= osprey platforms. any new platforms or existing platforms in this area of White's Creek will be open to goose nesting as they lay eggs just before osprey arrive
juvenile on the nest calling for fish around noon today, no adult male seen
one juvenile flying off and on nest today crying for fish, ad male in far tree
ad male in tree eating a bunker, juvenile was asking for some fish from his perch in another tree, then he flew to nest calling faster and louder for the fish but papa did notshare and ate the entire fish and yellow tail
one juvie in the trees crying for fish, no ad m seen
strong n wind today, less and less sounds of osprey over our creek, but did see this adult male on branch eating a fish and one juvenile on another tree calling for papa to share
one juvenile crying for fish on the nest and then she flew to the treeline where papa was perched
one juvenile on nearby tree branch calling for fish as we passed by on our boat, no ad m seen today
one fledge on nest crying and ad m at tree
3 large chicks looking ready to fledge any day
3 chicks up on the nest gettting fed from momma, they look almost ready to fly, maybe another week ?
3 chicks sleeping down low in nest in the afternoon hear, mombrella not really doing much good, hope they fledge closer to 8 weeks than 9 weeks so they can get some shade
one little noodle head popping up at 3:30 today with a possible second behind mum
boat ride past nest at 2 pm, male had fish and swapped out with female who was incubating, no hatchlings yet
one deep in the nest today at 12:30 pm, assume still incubating
finally one deep in the nest incubating!
one on nest today following 2 days of heavy rain, no incubating
geese and goslings on boat ramp nest the platform today, one osprey standing on the nest, no incubating tho!
both on nest today, male brought in nest material
1 osprey back on nest, geese have left, osprey was digging in nest bowl, they should be pretty much on schedule!
goose still on nest, did not see or hear ospreys
pair arrived to find geese on the platform, they were unable to flush the geese off and the geese laid eggs on about 3-26-20, osprey remain in the guard tree directly across from the nest platform
pair arrived to find geese on the platform, they were unable to flush the geese off and the geese laid eggs on about 3-26-20, osprey remain in the guard tree directly across from the nest platform
chick is big, due to fledge soon
incubation or hatching date must be off, but only seeing one chick at this nest.
1 low in nest, may still be incubating or has a hatchling?
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.
one deep in nest in heavy rain and wind, no mate seen from my vantage point on land, will wait for boat to view the guard perch
strange that there is no activity, no geese, osprey or eagles..but i bet the immature eagle pair is nearby
no activity seen except for occasional immature eagle
juvenile alone in the favored trees, crying for fish
one juvenile on the nest crying today, 8-9-18 i saw the juvenile on the nest and then it flew to the trees where the adult female was eating a fish.
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.
one large chick on the nest with one adult today about 1:30 pm.
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
4 pm boat ride, one very low in nest, second not seen
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.
one deep in the nest incubating today
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.
sure looks like one osprey is incubating will check back again to confirm
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.
no geese on the nest around 5:30 pm and no ospreys seen
no geese on the nest today around 4 pm.
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.
uh-oh...2 geese on the nesting platform today
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
One adult on the nest appears to be fussing with chicks, possibly feeding.
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.
incubating, can not see mate from current vantage point
one incubating and a boat is now docked close by....
one still incubating, have not seen the mate lately
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.
2 osprey on the nest today around 2 pm. one was busy fixing the nest.
No osprey seen on the nest recently
I osprey on nest, faintly calling.
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.
No more activity at this platform. I can confirm this nest has failed.
Just one bird up on the platform today. After a few minutes it flew away. It was not incubating.
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.