Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Osprey



 As I have mentioned before (and complained about) we have a family of osprey in our park.  These huge birds make great subjects for Doug to practice on with the new camera.

This family hatched two chicks about the end of May.  As the chicks grow they become very, very noisy, screaming for food all day long.  The parents bring them fish.  The osprey prefer the heads of the fish best and tend to throw the remains to the ground below their tree (which is also along one of the main roads through the park - smelly!)
 

 We are no longer able to tell the chicks from their parents.  You see there is only one chick in this picture.  During the tremendous thunder storm last Monday one chick fell out of the nest and crashed to the ground.  One of our staff members removed the body and buried it.

 Yesterday while Doug was doing his early morning rounds and the birds were making lots of noise, he looked up and saw there were four birds in the nest.  What the heck?  Osprey are extremely territorial and would never let another bird in their nest.  So we must have been wrong and there were originally three chicks.

In this shot you can actually see wasps flying around the birds.  We can only imagine how smelly it must be up there.  Fish guts, bird poop, etc.
The parents are busy trying to convince the chicks that it is time to fly south for the winter (JUST LIKE US) but like children, they resist and have to yell about it.

An interesting fact about Osprey - there is only one species in the world.  

5 comments:

Paul and Marsha Weaver OCT. 17, 2009 said...

Wonderful photos. Your camera is working super.

Linda Sand said...

One thing positive about these birds--your camera work.

Jim and Sandie said...

Great pictures. Sure wish mine looked that good. And they are definitely noisy birds. At least our nest is far enough away that we don't have to worry about fish guts unless they use our pole as a dining table.

Sue and Doug said...

the camera is working beautifully!
nice close ups of the osprey!!

Wanderin' said...

You really got some good pictures of those osprey! Good job!