It has been quite some time since I visited the famed Ospreys of the Watsonville wetlands and I recently paid a visit to see how they have been. While the homosapien world is in turmoil, our avian neighbors continue to do what they have been doing for millions of years.
Here are some interesting facts about these magnificent birds of prey.
Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) are typically monogamous, reuniting with the same mate each spring and returning to the same nest. Some nests have been in repeated use for many years, with the birds adding new material each nesting season to the point of it becoming huge.
Females generally lay two or three eggs at 1-3 day intervals, incubating each egg for 37 days. Although the chicks hatch a few days apart, aggression and dominance by the older chick is uncommon; unlike other bird species (egrets for example), where siblings will literally kill or force each other out of the nest before fledging.
The osprey relationship is one to be admired as they make wonderful parents. Nesting duties are divided whereby the female does most of the incubating, brooding and feeding of the young. Although she will share the hunting when the chicks are larger, the male is the major provider of fish for both the female and the young. Chicks will fledge around 53 days with both parents continuing to provide food for the young, which remain close to the nest for an additional couple of months.
This particular pair have been returning to this location for quite a fews years and it is becoming a favorite spot for photographers and birds lovers alike. On the first of my two visits, the male brought a partially eaten fish to the nest which the female fed to the young. In a period of a couple of hours I only saw two chicks, so assumed this was the number that successfully hatched and made it to this stage of life.
On my second visit however, I was pleasantly surprised to see a third chick! But with heavy cloud cover and fading light, the conditions for action photography were not optimal, so I decided to just capture a short video clip before heading back home. What a beautiful sight as all three appear to be doing well and growing rapidly. Just check out the massive wingspan of one of the chicks!
I will be returning to this osprey family over the next few weeks with updates, so if you enjoyed this story, subscribe to my blog and please feel free to share!
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