Nickname
EC Front Gate Pond
Coordinates
(27.718, -82.6893)
Substrate
Osprey Nest Platform
Description
This was on a light and then was moved slightly to a platform. The platform is located at the front of Campus on the side walk beside Front Gate Pond.
Followers
None
Monitoring groups
What to look for
a
Adult Arrival
Look for 2 adults on the nest. The adult pair will show pair bonding behaviors such as vocalizations, aerial sky dances, and the male feeding the female fish. You may see the pair copulating, which typically begins 14 days before laying eggs.b
Incubation Initiation
Females will lay 1 - 4 eggs at a rate of one egg every 1 - 2 days. After laying, incubation starts. Look for adults taking turns sitting low in the nest incubating eggs. The incubation period can last 35 - 43 days.c
Clutch Hatching
Chicks hatch ~39 days after incubation begins. Look for adults bringing food to the nest and making "head bows" into the center. Chicks typically can't be seen until they are 2 - 3 weeks old, so feeding behavior is the only way to know chicks are there.d
Nestling Count
Around 4 weeks after hatching, look for the heads of chicks to show over the rim of the nest, particularly when adults bring food to the nest. Other times they lie flat and are harder to see. Count the number of chicks in the nest before they learn to flye
Fledgling Count
Chicks begin flying around 7 - 8 weeks old, and are still fed by the adults. Count the number of chicks who have successfully fledged the nest and are observed flying.f
Chick Last Observed
4 - 10 weeks after fledging, chicks begin leaving the nest area to migrate south, once they have learned to fly and feed themselves. Record the date that the last chick left the nest.x
Nest Failure
Look for signs of nest failure like adult abandonment, adults no longer incubating eggs or feeding young.Review All Observations
| 2019 - Isaiah | 2017 - HaleyKaz | 2017 - tjlong | 2016 - kmnoonan | 2016 - tCribbs | 2016 - Nicole27 | 2015 - Beth | 2015 - BirdMan | 2014 - Beth | 2014 - Gmoney | 2014 - Selena B | 2013 - Beth | 2012 - Beth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aAdult Arrival | 2/5/19 | 1/9/17 | 1/9/17 | 1/14/16 | 1/14/16 | 1/10/14 | 2/21/14 | ||||||
| aOccupied | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| aActive | Yes | ||||||||||||
| bEgg Laying | |||||||||||||
| bIncubation Initiation | 2/16/17 | 3/8/16 | 1/21/16 | 2/24/15 | |||||||||
| cClutch Hatching | 4/12/16 | 3/25/14 | |||||||||||
| dNestlings | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |||||||
| eFledglings | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||
| eFirst Chick Fledging | |||||||||||||
| fChicks Last Observed | |||||||||||||
| xNest Failure | |||||||||||||
| xReason For Nest Failure | unknown reason |
Select Seasons
Show reports, diaries, and photos from:Current 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Activity reports
2012 Nest Activity Report by Beth
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | No | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2013 Nest Activity Report by Beth
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | 0 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | No | Fledglings | 0 |
| Nest Active | Yes | First chick fledging | |
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure | unknown reason |
2014 Nest Activity Report by Gmoney
| Adult arrival | 01/10/2014 | Nestlings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2014 Nest Activity Report by Selena B
| Adult arrival | 02/21/2014 | Nestlings | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | 2 |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | 03/25/2014 | Reason for nest failure |
2015 Nest Activity Report by BirdMan
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | 02/24/2015 | Nest failure | |
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2014 Nest Activity Report by Beth
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2015 Nest Activity Report by Beth
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2016 Nest Activity Report by tCribbs
| Adult arrival | 01/14/2016 | Nestlings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | 01/21/2016 | Nest failure | |
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2016 Nest Activity Report by kmnoonan
| Adult arrival | 01/14/2016 | Nestlings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | No | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | 03/08/2016 | Nest failure | |
| Clutch hatching | 04/12/2016 | Reason for nest failure |
2016 Nest Activity Report by Nicole27
| Adult arrival | Nestlings | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | 1 |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2017 Nest Activity Report by tjlong
| Adult arrival | 01/09/2017 | Nestlings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2017 Nest Activity Report by HaleyKaz
| Adult arrival | 01/09/2017 | Nestlings | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | 2 |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | 02/16/2017 | Nest failure | |
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
2019 Nest Activity Report by Isaiah
| Adult arrival | 02/05/2019 | Nestlings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Occupied | Yes | Fledglings | |
| Nest Active | First chick fledging | ||
| Egg laying | Chicks last observed | ||
| Incubation initiation | Nest failure | ||
| Clutch hatching | Reason for nest failure |
Photos of this nest
Nesting Diaries
04/08/2019 by Isaiah
Female walking around in nest for a while, then eventually sat down and stayed there
03/12/2019 by Isaiah
Female laying low in the nest. Male perched on a nearby tree. Both flew off within a minute of me walking up. Female circled nest and vocalized for another two minutes before flying off
02/17/2019 by Isaiah
Male and female in the nest, other movements in the nest as well. Male brought fish and seemed to be leaning over in nest
04/12/2018 by ManaMcD
Osprey moving around frequently in the nest - may be fledgling based on messy, speckled feathers. Adult in tree with a fish nearby.
04/05/2018 by ManaMcD
Male perched in tree nearby the nest. Female adult in the nest appears to be eating.
04/03/2018 by ManaMcD
Male kept watch in a different tree than usual. He finished a small silver fish today after the female (and fledglings?) in the nest finished.
03/27/2018 by ManaMcD
Female appears to be in the nest, no sign of the male this time but lots of vocalizations.
03/13/2018 by ManaMcD
Female appears to be in the nest, but the male showed up half-way through observations with what appeared to be a little bluegill fish. After sharing at the nest, he flew to the tree and ate the rest of the fish.
03/09/2018 by ManaMcD
Two adult ospreys (& babies?) interacting in the nest. Male flew to tree after some time and finished a small fish. Vocalizations were many at first, but both were quiet near end of observation period.
03/08/2018 by ManaMcD
Many osprey in the area vocalizing. Adult (male?) landed in nest at 10:25 AM, and then moved to tree at 10:27. Still in tree upon departure,appeared to be preening and resting. Periodic vocalizations.
03/02/2018 by ManaMcD
Adult arrived to nest half way through observations, and left again a few minutes later. Heard frequent unidentified vocalizations before and after the adult landed in the nest.
03/01/2018 by ManaMcD
Adult (male?) present in the nest. Frequent vocalizations, very alert with lots of head movements. Left the nest once during observations, and returned to the nest several minutes later.
04/21/2017 by HaleyKaz
The female was sitting in the nest, the male approached with a fish and the female began feeding 2 chicks.
03/03/2017 by HaleyKaz
At first the osprey's head was only visible in the nest, and then it got up and vocalized before flying away. Other ospreys were circling in the area.
02/16/2017 by HaleyKaz
Both osprey were sitting in the nest when I first arrived, then the female flew to a nearby tree with a fish and the male remained in the nest in incubation posture.
01/09/2017 by tjlong
Adult pair roosted in live oak tree on the eastern (opposite) edge of the pond closest to the security gate.
09/23/2016 by BWilcox
The nest was present, and seemed intact, but we didn't observe any birds in the area.
05/05/2016 by kmnoonan
Female on nearby tree and male in nest. Watched female chase fish crow out of surrounding area.
04/20/2016 by kmnoonan
Male visible in nest, seemingly incubating. Female returned to nest and settled down (but not sitting as low as male was) and male left.
04/04/2016 by kmnoonan
Both male and female in nest, male left to nearby tree and female remained in nest, barley visible.
03/20/2016 by kmnoonan
One bird in nest, barley visible. Male flew to nest with nesting materials and remained there.
03/10/2016 by kmnoonan
Bird seen on platform, unable to determine gender. Other osprey seen nearby circling.
01/14/2016 by tCribbs
There was no osprey in nest but one female perched in a nearby tree. Could have been cautious due to traffic alterations.
12/15/2015 by Beth
Male seen on nest, female near nest on tree, but not that much nesting material on disc
11/17/2014 by BirdMan
No nest present, adult female observed in tree 50 to 75 ft away, adult male observed in tree 150 ft away
10/09/2014 by BirdMan
Platform still empty, but adult pair observed perched in tree roughly 150 to 200 feet away.
10/02/2014 by BirdMan
No nest present, but slight accumulation of twigs on top of platform. One adult female perched in tree roughly 100-150 feet away from platform. On adult male flying in vicinity of platform before perching in tree roughly 50 feet away from platform.
09/25/2014 by BirdMan
No nest present, one adult male observed flying about 100 feet away before perching in nearby tree
05/08/2014 by Selena B
Male and female osprey are present in nest with fledgling; getting difficult to tell apart fledgling from adults since it's getting significantly larger. Other fledgling is still at rehab center.
05/04/2014 by Selena B
Appears that one fledgling is still left in nest but no adult osprey were in or near by the nest.
04/11/2014 by Selena B
Female in nest with chick; this is the first day a chick has been observed, currently only one chick has been seen.
02/28/2014 by Selena B
This is the fourth visit where no ospreys have been seen occupying or near the nest.
01/17/2014 by Gmoney
During this third observation of the front gate nest, The male and female osprey were perched on the nest. The male flew off the nest and soared around the pond, but would come back and perch again on the nest with the female. The male did this several times. The male would also perch on other power lines or poles in the area. The female left only twice but for a very short period of time, and then returned to perch on its nest again. The female had a beautiful light grey and white breasted necklace.
01/15/2014 by Gmoney
During this second observation of the Eckerd College Front Gate Pond Osprey nest, we spotted a female perched on the nest. All she did was look around, and she never left her nest the entire duration of the observation.
01/10/2014 by Gmoney
This nest is isolated from other trees and is located beside the Eckerd college front gate pond. This pond has a lot of other bird species that can be a good resource of the Ospreys. During this first observation there were no Ospreys perched on the nest. We only saw a male Osprey flying around in the general vicinity.
08/01/2013 by Beth
Adults arrived January 2013. Incubation began during February 2013. Pair last seen at nest June 2013.
by kmnoonan