Osprey Cam – Olympia, Washington




The Osprey Cam Story

A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist identified and assessed a recently damaged osprey nest-platform for possible repair and installation of a WildWatchcam to observe the nesting behavior and prey species being utilized by the birds. It was determined that for this project to be effective most materials and technical assistance would need to be donated to the cause! The dedicated team quickly developed- the inviting private landowners Gene and Regan; a dedicated wood craftsman Geoffry Carson and his wife Dee to donate platform materials, shop and hours of time to design and construct the new osprey platform; a highly skilled climber Tim Brown who was cable of using block and tackle to safely lower many pounds of old platform debris lodged in the huge Douglas fir to the ground and raise the new light-weight but sizeable platform to the very tip of the 180’ tree-top. The team was coordinated by local WDFW, wildlife biologist Michelle Tirhi and camera aspects covered by WDFW, WildWatchcam coordinator Chuck Gibilisco and Americorps assistant Lauren Seyda. Two work days were required to install and activate the new nest platform and camera. Many volunteer hours and dollars were contributed to this project. We hope you enjoy the views!

Olympia, Washington Weather Report

Note: Washington is in the Pacific Time Zone, which is GMT/UTC -8 hours Standard Time and GMT/UTC – 7 hours Daylight Savings Time

Looks like this might be a heron nest this season.

They're both back



JAZZEL

Wonderful news - thanks, jazzel! I've looked in occasionally, but haven't seen anyone at home. This nest is just so beautiful!

Tom
I see the Heron mostly in the morning.
The Osprey mostly in the aftrenoon.

Quote by: tomotto

Looks like this might be a heron nest this season.

Welcome to our new forum, crtzm! (And a belated welcome to tomotto!)

I do hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of editing your posts to make the pictures of the heron appear without clicking the link. It's easy to do - but not at all intuitive. Browse and attach your picture as usual, put your cursor where you want the picture to be in your post, click the FILE button in the formatting toolbar above the box where you type, and put a 1 between the two tags that appear for the first attachment, 2 for the second, etc. It should look like this:

If you have any questions, let us know.

And I have a question - sharing is fine in the off-season, but will this be a problem now that we're moving into nesting time? Or will the herons move on once the osprey start serious nesting? I know the Blackwater eagles use the osprey nest there as a fishing perch while the osprey are away, but don't bother them once they've returned and started to set up housekeeping - so I'm wondering if it will be similar here.

Thanks to all for getting this cam up and running - I do enjoy watching this nest!

Wondering where to start



JAZZEL

Morning meeting.

First egg today



JAZZEL

Wonderful news, Jazzel! I've been checking as well - should have realized you'd be the first to see it!

I do think they need to do a bit of finish work on the nest, though....

I saw the following posted on the cam site:

Ospreycam

Update April 26, 2010
Osprey viewers have noticed the new nesting material delivered to the nest several days ago about the same time as the first egg was laid. The female is incubating the egg and is not tangled in the yellow netting. We are monitoring the birds which seem to be familiar with the material. We would also like to remind everyone to consider the proper use and disposal of plastics.

~~~~~

It's a beautiful area, looks very lovely this morning - and I think still one egg though it's hard to tell for sure (not sure from the note on the site if the egg was laid before the 26th).

TWO EGGS THIS MORNING



JAZZEL

Pearl, on the BCAW forum, has posted a pic of a third egg today

JAZZEL

First chick hatched today



JAZZEL

The little chick is so cute!

I thought I saw a piece of shell earlier - and I think I'm seeing a second chick, curled in a little ball while Mom feeds #1.



Actually, I think it's more sprawled than curled, now that I look at my s'caps - I'm thinking the white stripe in front of the egg is the new chick's back.

Still two chicks and an egg - and I have some more pictures I'll try to add tomorrow. But for now, good night little osprey!

I actually got a family photo this morning:


The egg is still an egg, and today is day 36 for it, so the odds of it hatching will start to go down after today. I have noticed that eggs here seem to hatch late in the day, so will try to keep an eye on the nest this afternoon and evening.

I'm pretty sure there are now three chicks.

I haven't seen the egg since morning, and pearl1 from the Bird Cams Around the World forum caught a s'cap that looks like Mom removing shell:


I have some pics that might show all three - but nothing certain. I'll try to add a couple of pics tomorrow night.

All three chicks seem to be doing fine! It is a bit hard to see them all - they tend to be a jumble of wings and stripes much of the time - but I'm quite sure I've had a good look at all of them today.

Pics from Wednesday evening June 9, part 1 of 2

Pics from Wednesday evening June 9, part 2 of 2

Looking good here! These are from last afternoon, June 14:

Judy, they sure do look well fed and cared for

JAZZEL

The two big ones have their darker down now, but the youngest is still light colored. #1 is two weeks old today, and #2 will be two weeks old tomorrow. #3 is half a week younger - he won't be two weeks until Sunday.