IMPORTANT: Messages from osprey experts

3:46pmEDT 5/15 George arrives with an Angel flourish,,”now I’m flying, now I’m not !” He has some new oddity..a solid clump of grasses? roots? He’s standing off to the right where you only see 1/2 of him..his butt is in Gracie’s face but at least he’s blocking the wind..She chatted to him and he took off after a few minutes…

while we`re waiting for hatching. Heres a fun fact. When we see the adults sit down and wiggle onto the eggs,and chicks when they are tiny, the adults are manipulating the eggs onto their brood patch. This is a featherless part of the underbelly that is supplied by blood and gives off heat. This heat helps keep the eggs and chicks warm. The feathers start to grow back soon after hatching. 🙂

George and Gracie got their usual early morning start when George brought Gracie breakfast of a headless fish at 5:25-ish, which she eagerly took before flying away and leaving the eggs in George’s care; about a half hour later she was back, without any leftovers for George. An hour after he had brought Gracie breakfast, George was back with another headless fish; then he stood at the front end of nest for a couple of minutes before leaving, looking around the nest and at Gracie, as if he was a little puzzled – either the fishing is good this morning and George wanted to show Gracie or he forgot that he had already fed her! Within 15 minutes, George was back (still carrying the fish, but it was smaller) to join Gracie on the nest. Gracie started alarming, then he joined in, to warn any trespassers to keep out. When everything had quieted down, George fed Gracie the rest of the fish, save for the tail, which he swallowed (without hardly any trouble today) himself. After wiping his beak on a grass-clump napkin, he took off. … Shortly after George left, Gracie got up to change her position on the eggs, but first, before sitting back down, she wanted to pull up and fluff out the corner of plastic that was so nicely tucked under the eggs, and then she left it loose. As she lay down on the eggs and the plastic, the corner of the plastic remained free, and as the wind picked up, the end started flapping, not making Gracie happy. So, she soon got up to sit facing a different direction, with her head now near the big pile of tattered sheets of black plastic. 25 or so minutes later, she got up to change her position, and, after first trying unsuccessfully to poke the black plastic end into the nest, she decided to just pick it up and move it over to the pile, so that the end was no longer even somewhat anchored. Now, with the wind getting really blustery at times, the plastic began flapping like crazy, slapping her in the head and face and draping over and around her, like a very long scarf! (Did anyone know how LONG that piece of plastic was?? It apparently starts in the right back corner of the nest!!) Eventually, she changed her position again, and this time she sat so her body was on the end of plastic, so that at least it was no longer flapping. But while the one end was anchored somewhere in the corner of the nest and the other end was weighted down by her body, the center section of the plastic still had slack, making it billow and snap near her head. At 8 am, Gracie and George switched, with it George’s turn to now deal with the flapping plastic; at first he looked a little perplexed at what to do about that crazily waving plastic, and his solution was to just lay with his upper body was on part of it – leaving the end free to still thrash around! It was Gracie’s turn in the wind tunnel again at 8:30-ish am, but before George left, both he and Gracie alarmed and he waved his wings at someone flying around nearby … I was waiting for poor little George to just get blown over backward! This time when Gracie sat, she anchored the length of the plastic so it was more taut, until she shuffled the eggs with her feet, loosening up the plastic. About 1 1/2 hours after starting her shift and staying in the same position, Gracie stood up to poke the nest to aerate it and moved the plastic end over so it was now in front of her face, and even though she tried to poke it down into the nest, she didn’t quite get the end well anchored … but she now had other, more important, things to worry about as Mr. Intruder took a low fly-by directly over the nest. He apparently then circled around, causing her to alarm at him again, warning him to stay away. A few minutes after all that, she changed her position and now the slackened plastic was again flapping like mad near and on her head. About 10:50 am, George brought Gracie her lunch – headless fish – and then sat on the eggs in exactly the same direction as Gracie (so that when I was scrolling ahead, I was thinking, wow, Gracie’s been there for the longest time, until I suddenly realized that the osprey who was now on the nest was darker; and I had to scroll back and back to see when the switch was made!!) At 11:50-ish, it was George’s turn to fend off Mr. Intruder, and George jumped up off the eggs to wave the intruder away (and almost losing his footing with the wind catching his wings!). Then George made his wobbly way back to the eggs, where he stayed, until Gracie returned a couple of minutes before noon. (George looked like he was sucked right up by some kind of large vacuum when he spread his wings to leave the nest!! … Whoosh and gone!! … and it wasn’t the video stream!!) Gracie was now in care of and on the eggs, with the blowing end of the plastic whipping around … and the plastic must be working its way out of the corner where it is anchored, because it seems to be getting longer!!

Sunday 6:48 am George in feeding Gracie breakfast. So adorable !

George made another trip to the nest with more twigs and grasses a couple of minutes before 8 pm. The wind had steadily been picking up and as George moved about the nest rearranging things, he wobbled in the wind. As he stretched his wings, the wind caught them and blew him back so that he almost fell over Gracie on the eggs but he managed to dance-step his way to the side. Already having had George tapping his tail feathers on her head while he was housekeeping and trying to put the reed on her back and pull the plastic that she was laying on out from under her, Gracie decided she needed to fly the coop. 20 minutes passed and then she was back to settle in for the night and George took his leave.

Waited up to see the night light, and, sure enough, there it is, exactly as Carol described!! Good night Carol, good night Leanne. Good night everybody else.

At 6:15 pm, George brought branches and placed them in a couple of areas around the nest, then flew away, returning about 25 minutes later with a large clump of dried grass. He stayed a few minutes to do some rearranging of some branches and other things before flying off, leaving Gracie to break up the clumps of new and old grass and the reeds. As much as we all hate that ball of tangled fishing line, the slanting sun of the late afternoon made it look, for a short while, like the golden hair of a princess, before the continued westward path of the setting sun turned it back to the gray hair of an ugly old hag that it was.

At 1:17 pm, Gracie returned, landing up on the perch. George, who had been silent since the start of his shift, started alarming almost immediately afterward and then continued to do so intermittently until he stood up off the eggs to fly off several minutes before 1:30 pm and a minute or so later, Gracie hopped down from the perch to take his spot on the eggs. Within a few minutes, George was back with a short stick, coming in with it gripped in both feet and looking as if he was balancing on a flying hoverboard! Gracie got up off the eggs, walked backwards to the top of the egg bowl rim, shook her feathers and stood for a moment, making her appear as if she was a giant compared to George standing at the front of the nest! She flapped up to the perch and George seated himself on the eggs. Shortly before 2 pm, Gracie took over as George dashed out for a few minutes to pick up more dried grass for the nest. Upon his return, he stood there a couple of minutes to contemplate what he should do next before again taking his leave. Just around 2:30 pm, with George still gone, Gracie alarmed as a huge osprey shadow crossed over the nest. A couple of minutes later, the really-getting-annoying-now osprey did a fly-by and then zoomed up from over the water to try to land on the perch. But, as the great warrior she is, Gracie jumped up there to chase him away, landing gracefully back down in the nest!! A few minutes later, Gracie alarmed anew as the pesky osprey apparently circled overhead, warning him not to mess with her anymore! All was well for the next 10 minutes, and then the video stream became very choppy(!). Somewhere in the choppiness, George must have landed on the perch, because Gracie was doing a staccato begging call and would gaze up at the perch when her head wasn’t whipping around! Gracie was still alone in the nest when the video stream froze and then suddenly George was standing next to her! (I think it would have been 2:50-ish pm.) Then the video stream continued to jerk along, flashing to a turquoise Axis Communication Screen at one point … and I think George left a couple of minutes after his magical entrance, to return at 3:35-ish pm with a whole fish for Gracie, which she grabbed, and almost clocked him in the head with when she flew off (he ducked!). The first thing he did after Gracie flew away was to move a thin long twig over, first dropping it on the eggs with a dull clink (“Hello, this is your Daddy!), before picking it up to move it on top of the black plastic sheeting. He did his usual egg-sitting antics – alternately fidgeting and playing with everything near him with dozing and also giving himself a preening in between his other activities! (But no longer panting because of the nice shore breeze. And doing a most adorable yawn, somewhere around 3:45 pm.) Gracie flew up to the perch after dinner at 3:50-ish pm, where George joined her a minute later for a quick tryst. After hopping down to the eggs, Gracie carefully took her place and a minute later George flew away off the perch, returning 40 or so minutes later with a clump of dried grass and small twigs, which Gracie immediately helped him start to break up before getting up to first stretch her wings before flying away. George moved a few twigs around then made his way down the slope of the egg bowl to sit on the eggs (and you know what he did to pass the time). By 5:25 pm, Gracie was back on the eggs …

6:39 pm: Gracie just returned, totally drenched. At least the rain looks like it’s lessening!

my poor Gracie. It is 5:59PM May 13 and hailing!!! Can’t believe the situations these creatures must endure.

obviously that is not the original George and Gracie, cause I just know they would have learned a lesson from last year and not be so dumb as too bring more of that fishing line into the nest.!

At 4:53 pm, George came back with a large headless fish for Gracie that she started clamoring for as soon as she saw him approaching. The video was very jumpy again (!), and although it was freezing and jumping, I saw that after Gracie managed to grasp the fish in her foot, she also snagged the fishing line, and when she flew away, she took along the fishing line until it got hooked on the upright stick on the pile of branches at the front left corner of the nest. Now it’s poor George’s turn to keep the eggs warm and dry!!

I’m concerned about the fishing line that is on the nest.

George stood up at 11:24 am, backed away from the eggs – had a hard time, too, because of all those pieces of wood in the way – and took off, to apparently circle around before landing back in the nest … sideswiping the perch with his feet in the process of landing. A few seconds later, Gracie, who had been up on the perch softly chirping to him, hopped down from the end of the perch and George flew off again … Gracie looked as if she was ready for lunch at noon – as she would periodically catch sight of George as he circled and flew around, she would call to him … Finally, at 12:40-ish, George brought her a whole silvery fish, but when she went to fly off with it, her talon GOT CAUGHT ON THAT FISHING LINE, and she called with increasing frenzy as she was trapped. At last, she was able to get free and fly away … hopefully something can be done about it before either she or George gets injured.

10:15ishEDT.5/13 Gracie seems restless today..she must have seen George in the distance as she left the nest before he got there..caught him as she went by and said”Babe, got an errand I forgot about..Hurry home…”

Hopefully that wad of fishing line will blow off the nest. THIS is the kind of hazard that is so very dangerous for our ospreys and other sea creatures.

Betsy, thanks for the video re the intruder. He was bothering them again last evening. Wish he would find his own nest! And rjoneal, thanks for posting that the intruder osprey will not eat the chicks. I was also concerned about that. Such drama for these wonderful parents. George has been so attentive to Gracie, and yes, it was so cute yesterday when he was feeling her. They are a special couple, doing a great job this year. I started watching ospreyzone right after July 4, 2015. Actually, it was the day after PeeWee passed, and I am glad I did not see that. I read about the website in the local paper, and have been drawn to it since then. Hope there is plenty of fish this year, so that all three babes have a chance for survival. Once again, Paul and Tommy, much thanks for allowing us to get a close-up glimpse of nature.

OH NO! Please tell me that’s a ball of some sort of moss grass and NOT FISHING LINE in the nest!?

I had seen it there earlier, but not being a fisherman and not being familiar with fishing line, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Just now, while I scrolling back, maybe it was the afternoon sun or maybe because of all of the day’s activities fluffing it, but is that a huge tangled wad of fishing line on the left lower side of the nest? And, if it is, is there any way to remove it at this stage?

Rjoneal My guess for first egg is May 31 at 1pm