Alcoa Osprey Nest

The Alcoa Osprey nest has been fun to watch over the past week. The three young have all fledged, but are returning to the nest routinely to eat the fish that the adults bring in.

One fledged last week. Then when I brought up the camera Monday morning I found only one of the young in the nest with Mom. One had fledged over the weekend:

It was eating while Mom kept watch. Then one of the fledglings flew in and was crying for the food that the other one was eating. The nestling mantled over the food, the first time I've seen one of the Osprey do this.

At one point, Dad brought in a fish. Mom tried to take it from him by stepping on it, but Dad couldn't shake it loose. At one point, he even tried to fly away while Mom still had ahold of it:

After I saved the above s'cap and turned back to the cam, Dad was gone and so was the fish... But there has been plenty of fish at this nest. Here are two of the offspring eating:

Later in the day I pulled up the cam and found this. I was hoping to see the last one fledge, but I missed it:

I have seen all three fledglings in the nest. They are all well fed and in good shape. Here's one of the fledglings, with a fat crop and tired, resting on one foot. It stayed like this for about 10 minutes:

I saw an interesting interaction at the nest today. Mom came into the nest with a fish. She wanted one of the fledglings to take it. She flap/bumped him to try to get his attention. He didn't understand what was going on and kept his back turned and head down, in a subsurvient posture. He seemed to think he was in trouble. After about the 8th bump, he flew. One of the other fledglings then grabbed the fish in its beak and pulled, but it wouldn't come free off of Mom's foot. But Mom rewarded the effort by feeding the fledgling. Eventually, the other fledgling returned to the nest and was fed by Mom. The third just stayed on the "branch" and watched. Probably still learning.

Another thing I've noticed about the Osprey are how gently they land. Bald Eagles "stick the landing" or they don't. They come in fast and try to use their wings to slow them down as their feet stretch out to the branch for the landing. The Osprey use their ability to hover to gently float down when they land. I've only seen one bad landing at the nest, when the fledgling came down with a foot on a sibling's back. At the Norfolk Bald Eagle nest, we'd see a Bald Eagle fledgling hanging upside down at least once per nesting season.