Hellgate Canyon, MT - 2012 - a Project Osprey Cam

Project Osprey Montana Webcams

"The University of Montana
Department of Geosciences
Environmental Biogeochemistry Laboratory"

Thanks to CAL04 for bringing this cam and the sister cam at the Dunrovin Ranch to our attention. The nest is located in Missoula, Montana, on the Clark Fork River. The pair successfully raised two chicks in 2010. They laid three eggs in 2011 and all hatched, but unfortunately the weather made it hard for them to find fish, so only the oldest chick survived to fledge. There's additional historical data available on the Project Osprey website, and on our thread from 2011 - link.

2012 Timeline

• cam on:
  
• adults return: female Apr 4; male either didn't return or was lost shortly thereafter
  
• new male arrives with fish: May 6
  
• eggs laid: May 5 (non-fertile and minimally tended); May 13, 5:44 am; May 15, 12:49 pm; May 20, 5:57 am
  
• hatched: June 19, 4:16 pm (37 days); seen June 21, 5:42 am (37 days); June 24, 10:00 am (35 days)
  
• danger averted: July 8 - #2 had fishing line wrapped around its wing and body with the hook in its leg; the team made a quick visit to the nest, removed the line, and weighed them all - 689, 688 and the little chick was 403 grams - all with very full crops
  
• named: by July 10 - Crown Royal, Captain Hook, & Squish (initial post) (explanation); Mom is Iris and Dad is Stanley
  
• banded: July 25 - Crown Royal is 73, Captain Hook is 72, and Squish is 71; blue bands with white numbers
  
• fledged:
  Hook # 72..Fledged Monday Aug 13, 2012 at 8:22am.. 7 1/2 weeks old
  Crown Royal # 73..Fledged Thursday Aug. 16 at 8:59am...8 weeks + 2 days old..
  Squish # 71..Fledged Sunday Aug 19 at 9:37am.. 8 weeks old..
  
  
  CR was noted to have a hanging left wing on Wed.Sept. 5, 2012.
  HERE
  
  Explanation from Face Book re CR'S wing.......
  forum/viewtopic.php?topic=415137#415137
  
  
• Last Seen:
  Hook #72 - on cam, September 3, 10:40 am (great pictures of all three together!); in the area, September 6
  Mom Iris - on cam, September 4; in area, September 6
  

Reserved

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I checked in on the nest and cam and they have it running. Here's the message posted at the Hellgate cam:

The ospreys have migrated south, so we programmed the camera to change views every few minutes. We look forward to having "our" birds back in March or April.

4:41pm- Winter at Hellgate

Sunday, February 19, 2012

We are still waiting for our Ospreys to come back and start nestorations. The cam was on the nest while I was checking in so here's a couple s'capes of it.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Good Morning Hellgate! Good Morning All!

We are getting closer to Osprey time! I saw a post on Facebook from Heiko that the birds arrived at the nest April 1st and April 12th last season. I plan to bring up the cam the end of the month in case the warm winter we experienced may bring them back sooner! Hope 2012 will be kinder to this nest! Last season we lost two of our chicks due to lack of food!

Hi Jean! I wondered when they were due back. I'll be checking in on them too! Hoping and praying they have a lot more fish this season!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Good Afternoon HellGate, Hi Darlene and all!

Just saw this post from Heiko! Looks like our osprey season will soon begin!

Osprey Cams

Hi everyone! The countdown has started - Ospreys should show up in a couple of weeks. You may have noticed that the video from both Osprey cameras is now streaming from "Livestream", which is a commercial outfit running internet video servers. The Hellgate nest channel is paid for by the Cornell University Bird Lab (http://​watch.birds.cornell.edu/​nestcams/home/index), so it has no commercials. The Dunrovin channel is still a free one so viewers have to wait through some commercials until the osprey stream begins. Heiko

Hi Jean, I saw that about an hour ago! Very exciting!