Bird Watching: Osprey season 2011. The nest is a busy place., 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Thanks, everyone for your comments.

The family continues to thrive. On Tuesday, Madam X came home to discover the smaller chick on the right hand branch. On Wednesday, it was seen flying around. The other two haven't been observed off the nest yet. Reading Alan Poole's book, males are smaller and are likely to be more advanced than females. I've thought that the small one was probably a male. Chest markings are no indicator of gender at this young age. So, for convenience, let's assume the smallest is male and let's call it Harry, after Pete's son. Names will come for the other two, but how we'll tell them apart won't be easy. Even telling the male from its siblings will probably be quite difficult unless there are two together for comparison.

I didn't go to the nest Wednesday or yesterday as it was so hot. This afternoon when I arrived, Harry was on the branch. Big Hook arrived with a fish, which she fed to the two that were on the nest. After about 20 minutes it got too much for Harry, who made his way down the branch onto the nest. I was beneath the nest, thus the different perspective. I must go down there more often. The birds were 60' away.

My issues with the 7D seem to have been resolved - my settings rather than any fault with the camera.