Nest #5417

Nickname

Yacht Club Drive nest

Coordinates

(25.1827, -80.3844)

Substrate

Osprey Nest Platform

Description

The nest is at eye level northeast of the on-ramp to Hwy 1northbound at the Yacht Club Drive exit about at mile marker 107), about a mile after you leave Key Largo heading north. The nest can be observed by parking under the Yacht Club Drive overpass and walking up the north bound on-ramp. It sits at the northwest corner of Lake Surprise.

Followers

None

Monitoring groups

Florida Osprey Watchers

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.

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.

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.

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 fly

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.

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.

Nest Failure

Look for signs of nest failure like adult abandonment, adults no longer incubating eggs or feeding young.

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Activity reports

	2018 - Charlene	2015 - mudskipper
aAdult Arrival	11/8/17	1/1/16
aOccupied	Yes	Yes
aActive
bEgg Laying		1/1/16
bIncubation Initiation		1/1/16
cClutch Hatching
dNestlings	2	0
eFledglings
eFirst Chick Fledging
fChicks Last Observed
xNest Failure
xReason For Nest Failure

Adult arrival	01/01/2016	Nestlings	0
Nest Occupied	Yes	Fledglings
Nest Active		First chick fledging
Egg laying	01/01/2016	Chicks last observed
Incubation initiation	01/01/2016	Nest failure
Clutch hatching		Reason for nest failure

Adult arrival	11/08/2017	Nestlings	2
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

03/27/2018 by Charlene

Two small chicks observed being fed. Nest looks pretty big despite problem with platform.

11/19/2017 by Charlene

Nest platfom damaged by Irma ! Only V structure remains. Small nest just built on structure

02/07/2016 by mudskipper

Checked the nest on both Feb. 5th and 7th. On the 5th, one bird was sitting on the nest, fairly immobile, so I assume it's the female sitting on eggs. On Feb. 7, watched one bird (male?) arrive with a fish, which it left behind while the sitting bird ate it. She? then settled down in the middle of the nest so I again assume they're still incubating.

01/01/2016 by mudskipper

One adult on nest. We did not make observations before Jan. 1 2016 so don't know when nesting began. Adult appeared to be moving things around as if repositioning an egg.

03/01/2015 by mudskipper

We watched this nest periodically through January and February 2015. When first seen (Jan 19), adults were already sitting on eggs so we don't know when laying occurred. We know the eggs hadn't hatched by Feb 15th (reported by two friends who stopped to look at the nest) but we observed two chicks when we looked on Feb. 25th. The accompanying photo was taken Feb. 28th and the backs of the heads of the two chicks are visible.