9-1-11

10:35
Junior finishes up and flies back to the nest.


10:43
Pa? Ma? Intruder?

PacNorWest... WOW!! Your pictures are incredible.... Love all of them... thank you JudyB for posting the link to this thread on the Halifax Osprey Thread... i will post it at Screech Hollow for all of them to enjoy... Bev....

PacNorWest. Your pictures are GREAT. I'm from Screech Hollow where Bev gave us a link to here. Thanks so much for sharing them with us. Sara

PacNorWest, Fantastic photography of the ospreys!! Thanks for sharing them with us!
(Tweet Dreams from Screech Hollow )

Quote by: PacNorWest

This evening, dinner is a rather large goldfish or koi.
From my observations, Pa usually eats the head of the fish before handing it over to the youngster.
On this occasion, the fish is not only intact, but still alive.
I can see it flopping around a bit. I wonder if this is one more step towards independence.
Do Osprey need to be taught to fish? This fledgling seems to be entirely dependent on Pa for food.
Ma seems to have flown away some time ago. Junior does not appear to be in any hurry to be independent.

I don't actually know if osprey in general are taught to fish - though it seems quite common for the female to leave a week or two after the chicks fledge, while the male stays for another 2-4 weeks. I'm sure the chicks are watching him fish, whether or not they're actually catching their own at that point. I have followed the adventures of some osprey chicks with GPS, and while there are a lot of hazards involved in migration, I haven't seen anything to suggest that lack of food was a major problem, so am guessing that most of them do figure it out.

Here's a link to the old Maine Eagle Cam Forum, where there's a post describing osprey teaching their young to fish - http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/viewt ... tdbc#42312. It's from 'The Education of Young Ospreys' by Meinertzhagen in which he describes in detail his observations of a family of Ospreys at a lake in Sweden in the 1950's.

Wow Doug you do an amazing job, your pictures are breathtaking. Thanks Judy for posting the link on Halifax Osprey.
Please tell me are these Osprey near Badger Road near Lynden?
Thanks for sharing your brilliant photos they truly are magnificant

Doug, your pictures are fabulous. You tell a story through your pics. This is the first year I have taken a real interest in the Ospreys. They are so beautiful!

gorgeous pictures Doug, thank you, could look at these all day. thanks Judy for the link, very teaching info and photos for us.