IMPORTANT: Messages from osprey experts

Nice pic of Humpty Dumpty this morn! Guess family went to BBQ for the holiday

Good Morning Happy July 1, 2017 we have 2 well feed babies in the nest and George & Gracie, all is good and everyone is happy, healthy.

OZ Folks- Elaine is one of our OZ Followers and she is recovering from shoulder surgery. We want her to know we are glad she is watching Osprey Zone while she is recovering, it gives us such great joy watching the Osprey Family. We hope you have a speedy recovery.
Here is a pic for you today!

Kathryn: Re your comment of too many pictures, too little information (June 26, 2017 at 2:09 pm). I didn’t know about OspreyZone in 2015 until just before that year’s chicks (Ronnie and Sandy) fledged. I had tried reading the comments at that time but found it very confusing with many viewers apparently not being able to differentiate between the chicks or even George and Gracie, so I gave up and just watched the video stream. But it piqued my curiosity about osprey and I vowed to watch the 2016 breeding period from the get-go. I wanted more information on osprey and I saw that others posted questions but no one was answering them so I took the initiative to research and post pertinent or just interesting information myself about osprey. We’ve already passed mating, egg laying, incubation, and hatching, all of which I posted information about last year. I posted information about the osprey GI system and about their feet for catching and holding fish among other interesting tidbits of information if you want to go back through last year’s comments. So, here we are with the chicks in their 4th week of life. Here’s some applicable information for this stage of their life and about the nest which I will repeat from last year:

Betsy April 29, 2016 at 4:26 pm – Reply
The other viewers and I frequently see sparrows, and sometimes starlings, hopping around on the nest “stealing” grass and small twigs for their own use! I usually saw them when the osprey was not in the nest, but now they seem to be more brazen! (I don’t know that I would if I was a little bird, or even any bird, even though ospreys eat almost exclusively (some 99%) live fish and will “only occasionally, when fish aren’t available, will the osprey eat small mammals, birds, or reptiles.” (http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/osprey)
And, here’s something interesting that I read: “Ospreys nests are used by many other species of birds. Smaller cavity-nesting species, such as common grackles, tree swallows, barn swallows, European starlings and house sparrows build nests inside osprey nests. Other larger species take over osprey nests for their own use in the spring before the resident ospreys return. In North America, these species include great blue herons, Canada geese, bald eagles, Red-tailed hawks, Great horned owls, herring gulls and common ravens.” (Poole, et al., 2002) (from http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Pandion_haliaetus/)

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Betsy May 10, 2016 at 3:14 pm – Reply
Birds don’t have sweat glands; so, when they’re hot they “pant” (similar to what dogs do when they’re hot).

“Respiratory evaporative heat loss – this is the most important form of heat loss in birds and virtually all birds exhibit some form of panting. … Many, if not all, birds flutter the throat area during heat exposure, resulting in heat loss from the mucus membranes of the throat. The hyoid bone flexes and the whole area is suffused with blood.” (http://ornithology.com/ornithology-lectures/7898-2/)

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Betsy May 27, 2016 at 9:49 am – Reply
“Osprey Crops
Ospreys are diurnal raptors (active in the daytime), and all raptors of this type have a special organ called a crop, which is a swelling at the base of the esophagus that forms a storage area where food can be held for later digestion. When the chick’s crop develops over the next couple weeks, it will look like a small bulging protrusion on the chick’s chest, and its presence will make life easier for the whole family. For the chick, the crop means the little bird can quickly swallow food that its siblings might want, and for the adults it means the chick can go longer between feedings.
Besides storing food for later consumption, the crop also stores indigestible material – like bones and scales. These unusable fish pieces are captured in the crop and eventually molded into pellets that are later regurgitated. Whenever someone talks of pellets, we often think of owls; however, owls do not have crops – they eat their prey whole, so all the contents goes to their stomachs and that’s where the pellets are formed. Owls regurgitate pellets much more frequently than ospreys do, mainly because of their different eating methods.” http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/osprey_cam_blog/archives/2004/05/25/
There’s also more at: https://nutritionofosprey.wordpress.com/digestive-anatomy-and-physiology/

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Betsy June 9, 2016 at 9:15 am – Reply
I saw an “osprey fact” post on another osprey webcam site yesterday regarding chick development. So, I “borrowed” their idea: that it would be great to see how the chicks will develop over the next 8 weeks.

Then, I lifted this from http://www.ospreys.org.uk/osprey-facts/
“Chicks
A young osprey spends the first seven or eight weeks of its life confined within the nest (or eyrie); a huge pile of sticks lined with moss, bark and grass. It will be fed primarily by the female, who tears pieces from a fish and passes them into the nest cup. At two weeks old the youngsters can move around the nest and after a month they are very active preening and exercising their wings. Gradually the wing-flapping increases until they are able to lift a little off the nest, called ‘helicoptering’ and then take their hesitant first flight.”

Go to the website to see how the chicks will look at 3 weeks old, 5 weeks old, and 8 weeks old.

“Chick Development:
… The buff-colored plumage that the chicks were born with will be replaced with a dense, wooly down when they are about 10-12 days old. Osprey expert Alan Poole calls the wooly period their “reptilian stage,” when “they are black, scaly, and often crouch at danger, reminiscent of their reptilian ancestors.” This second down covering will last another 10-15 days. …
At about 2 weeks old, feathers will begin to replace the down. According to Poole, “First to appear are rusty-golden pinfeathers on the head and neck. Darker body feathers follow slightly later, and primaries, secondaries and rectrices (outer feathers of the wing and tail) emerge at about 20-25 days.” When the chicks are about 30 days old, their growth will begin to slow and they will already be at about 70-80% their full-grown body weight.” from: http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/osprey_cam_blog/archives/2004/06/01/index.html

There are excellent pictures at https://www.cumauriceriver.org/pages/ef-slide/ef-01.html showing week by week osprey chick development.

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The chicks and Gracie have been occasionally sneezing over the last several days. This was posted last year:
Maltiegirl July 9, 2016 at 8:01 pm
Hi Karen, I saw this on the Charlo Montana Osprey site regarding sneezing!
” Lots of preening as those feathers are really developing. Once the feathers have developed they burst through the sheath protecting them. They contain blood vessels that nourish the growing feather, thus the name blood feather, or pin feather. The feather is rolled inside of these tubes to protect it while growing. The protective tubes flake and fall away on their own or while the bird is preening. Through this time you will often hear the Ospreys sneeze as the powdery flakes fall away and become airborne. “!

@ 18:21—Is this one of Gracie’s “wipers”–extra long?

Good Morning OZ Followers- Sure would like to here from some more followers

6-29-17 Good Morning Family here is a pic before they were born, George did not want to get off the eggs and Gracie later had to give him a lil shove.
George was saying- If I do not look at you I can pretend your not there so I can nap.

How far can that crop stretch before he bursts?

Haven’t posted all season yet for a variety of reasons, but lurking every day and reading comments. Wanted to give this link to a story here on TV,
regarding an osprey nest, and thought OZ viewers would find it interesting. http://longisland.news12.com/story/35761794/osprey-nest-grows-too-large-atop-east-end-home

6-27-17 Hard to believe how much the babies have changed but this pic was exactly 7 days ago look how fast they grow.

Where is our windshield washer?

Gracie feeding the chicks

George took off from the nest, flying around it before landing on the perch

It really is fun checking in to see how well this family is doing. By all accounts the fishing has been superb. As most know that means a peaceful nest. George has really stepped up his game being a Dad too.

The pictures are great but to many. The first time I went on this site it was more informative about the ospreys to learn about these wonderful birds.

Serious wingersize till he almost nose-dived…..