Judging by the way the female acted today, the first osprey chick at Salt Point probably hatched this morning. It was great fun to watch the change in the pair's behavior. Instead of taking the fish delivered by the male to a tree, the female stayed on the nest eating it and giving some to the chick, I presume. (I can't see well enough in to the nest to see all the action.) The male, who always incubated the eggs when the female left the nest, seemed confused by the change of routine. He kept making intention movements to get on the nest, but was thwarted by the female each time. So instead of incubating, he spent his free time guarding the nest, which he has not done since the early days of the nest when he was still claiming ownership.
When the female was done with the fish, instead of flying off with the leftover, he did something novel. The female let him stand on the platform box and finished up the fish scraps in the nest. The next two fish deliveries were similar with the female staying on the nest, although there were no leftovers and he no longer attempted to incubate. I saw similar eating behaviors in the males on the Cornell and Audubon osprey cams. Usually young ospreys lay 2-3 eggs about 2-3 days apart and the eggs hatch in the order they were laid. If our ospreys follow the norm, we should have at least one more chick on Tuesday or thereabouts, and perhaps a third. The chicks grow very quickly, so we might see little heads poking up fairly soon. Candace Cornell -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
