Bird Watching: Raising Aussie Osprey #8, 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Everything about the Ospreys is bewildering and at times really awful. The lady who lives close by told me that during yesterday morning, Mum and Aussie were sharing the nest quite harmoniously. Dad brought a fish that Aussie quickly snaffled and took up onto the branch. When Mum showed an interest in the fish, Aussie put her wing right down over the fish between it and Mum, so that she couldn't get at it. There was, however, no real conflict.

I visited at about midday yesterday, always dreading what I'll find. Mum was alone on the nest, alert and preening herself. She did a couple of small, but healthy looking white poops. After about 15 minutes she flew off down the bay. I waited for her to return, but she didn't. I looked for her in the trees down that way, but wasn't able to locate her.

When I returned to the nest yesterday afternoon, Aussie was on the nest. It was an incredibly windy day, very cloudy and threatening rain. That area is even windier because it comes across a large expanse of open water and then rushes up the embankment. My fellow observer who witnessed the sight of Mum, Dad and two other Ospreys soaring on the 10th (see post for details) and I had our attention drawn to the skies because the racket Aussie was putting up. There were two, three, four and even five Ospreys soaring above. Mum was most definitely one of them as I was able to grab some (really poor) in-flight shots of her.