Osprey season 2011. The nest is a busy place.

We've come from here. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1227580/#new

The first thread for this season is here, if anyone wants to go back to the beginning. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1190091/

The three chicks continue to thrive. No rivalry is ever observed, each patiently waiting its turn to be fed. They aren't eating on their own yet, but I don't think that's too far off. At times the nest looks like it has an octopus crawling around on it, with limbs going in every direction. Wing exercise is fun, especially when all three are flapping at the same time.

Big Hook seems less cranky with Dad, although she occasionally chases him around a bit. He is spending a lot of time in the tree about where we position ourselves to view the nest. I think the reason for this may be that the trees have grown between where he has always sat, outside Madam X's place and the nest.

This shot is from 2 or 3 days ago - all flapping simultaneously.

From yesterday afternoon, before it started raining. The littlest chick is on the left. At one stage, it was even closer to the edge of the nest than in this shot.

One good puff of wind and I can see myself scrambling down the embankment in search of a chick.

I've cropped this so you can see the chicks expression as it gazes directly at me.

The weather is nicer today and I'll head back there this afternoon. That's it for now.

Fabulous shots of the chicks, flapping their wings. They are some beautiful birds. Wish I could see them with my own eyes. But your skill as a camera handler, is making it just as interesting to watch.. Thanks for sharing this precious family with us.

Agreed with Bernadette, such wonderful capture of the family in action. Love that chick's expression as it gazes directly at you Margaret. Just think that you'll have to scrampling down the embankment in search of the chicks should one slips off the nest....ooooh I'm getting chill bumps just think about it.

Thanks, Burn. Every day is as intriguing as the last.

You think you get chill bumps, Kim. LOL. Just imagine how I feel at the prospect. Fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that. Mind you, looking at their flight feathers, if worst came to worst and one of them did go over the edge, it would probably be able to fly, if its instincts kicked in quickly enough.

Oh my goodness, a nest full of feathers and wings! They are so beautiful. Wonderful pictures Margaret. The cropped shot of that chick staring right at you is just too darned cute.

Glad you didn't have to scramble down the bank!

I with the others your skills with the lens are bringing those of us who can't see first hand such, a treasure for us to be a part of their development.

Thank you again for the photos and updates.

Jan

LOVE,love the photos,the staring 1 too curious ; ) My heart pops into my throat just looking at the photos of the too close to the edge photos.Cant even imagine how you feel Margaret.whooaa like a rollercoaster ride..

I spent three hours at the nest yesterday afternoon. No sign of Dad yesterday, but Big Hook brought three fish in just under two hours. The chicks are starting to pick at the remnants by themselves. Here's a shot when the nest was in shadow of one of the two biggest chicks struggling to get a rather large piece of fish down its throat - a good look.

I think the little one may be the first to fledge. It is doing more wing exercises than its bigger siblings.

Lift off.

Considering its inexperience, it made quite a good landing into a very stiff sea breeze.

Big Hook flying in with a fish (not visible).

Family photo.

Big Hook went off for a bath and returned sopping wet. I'll be heading to the nest shortly. It's blowing really hard out there. I hope all three chicks are still there, but it wouldn't surprise me if the littlest isn't.

More later.

Great shots Margaret! Love the family portrait!

Beautiful shots Margaret. Look at that little bugger go!!

That family portrait is lovely. So difficult to remember that these lovely chicks were tiny little hatchlings just a short time ago.

I just cant believe how big they are just amazing.

Wow incredible as always your shots of thier development/life.

So once they can fly does that mean they won't ever return to the nest? What is your experience with this. Maybe the little one would be first because he is the lightest..... or just because he/she is the bravest!!!!

Oh I know they must grow up and leave but gosh, I will dearly miss seeing the day to day adventure.

Many thanks again to you both for your photo coverage.

Jan

Thanks, all. I love the family portrait as well; the way they're all looking at whatever they're looking at in unison.

Jan, once fledged, they will return to the nest for several months, gradually decreasing the amount of time they spend there. Whopper, the chick from last season was still around a couple of weeks ago and it is more than 12 months old. It has spent a lot of its time in a particular tree below Madam X's place. I'll have to check with her to see if she's sighted it recently. so no, we'll hopefully be seeing these three little ones for some time to come.

Margaret, I don't want to think about the chicks leaving the nest just yet but that lift off made me catch my breath. I was expecting the next photo to show the chick flying off and I'm so glad it didn't. They're such a perfect family.

Each photo is so detailed and it makes me feel I'm right there with you seeing this gorgeous family. That 7D was made for you-and us because we get to see these photos. Congratulations on the new camera.

Thanks, duc. I'm a bit disappointed with the focus on the 7D. I was actually going to mail you to ask you which settings you're using. I made some changes to the default settings at Mrs Ed's suggestion and although it's made some improvement, the focus still isn't right. I'm taking it back to the store where I purchased it for the tech guys to look at both the camera and the 400mm lens. Maybe the lens needs calibrating; I don't know. I don't intend to highjack my own thread, but this shot of a Willie Wagtail is so soft. The lens wouldn't lock on and yet distance and lighting were ideal. We'll see.

Whinge over for now. Big Hook was sitting on the pole branch after feeding the chicks. Dad flew in with a fish and she was none too pleased with his appearance on the scene.

She noisily flew to the nest, with the intention of politely asking him to leave. The chicks observe with mild interest.

She's not yelling at the kids, she's just continuing to yell as she makes her way over the chicks to scold him directly. He was hesitant to leave and I thought she was going to push him with her chest, which I've seen happen before.

The chick on the left got up after its mother walked on it to get closer to Dad.

He eventually took the hint that his presence wasn't appreciated and flew up to the big tree near where I was positioned. She flew back to the pole branch and periodically yelled at him.

Along with the fish Dad delivered, Big Hook brought two fish within two hours. The chicks are so well fed that when she brought the last one, they didn't even bother getting up, so she ate it herself and that's how I left things yesterday afternoon. The nest is in shadow during the late afternoon so no pics of that. This is Big Hook sending friendly warnings to her mate to stay away from the nest.

Great shots Margaret. My goodness, Big Hook is a crabby thing. Wonder why she is so crabby with her mate?

She's female. Does she need a reason?

Considering having to tend to 3 chicks 24/7. And a mate that's inquently around. Do we suppose Big Hook is experiencing Postpartum blues abeit she has no Mother- in- law telling her that she's losing her girlish 'good look'. lol All jokes being put aside. Do animal instinct tell the mother bird to be overly protective of her youngs thus it appears that she's not treating her mate with tenderness and adoration?

That's probably the explanation, Kim. The nest is her domain and she's responsible for actually feeding the chicks. They don't think as we do and she possibly views her mate as a potential thread to the kids.

Wonderful family pictures. Are you still thinking about a book?

It's a work in progress, Iris.

Margaret

here in FLorida, the mother duck will guard her babies as best as possible due to all males coming in a killing the young, does that ever happen with them? I thinking no, but then maybe it is just the survival of her to keep the babies protected as you said, but not really from dad...LOL

Pour dad....

Jan

Jan, This is the only family I've ever observed over an extended period of time, but I've never seen even the slightest hint of aggression from the male. On the contrary, he seems curious and his demeanour is always gentle. I think it's just the female guarding the nest from all-comers and that includes Dad - at this point in time. I'll see if I can find anything in Alan Poole's book that refers to this behaviour.

Well that is good to hear. I didn't think it would be the same but it is really terrible to watch the male ducks here in Florida pick off the chicks one my one. I found this out when my son was 6 and the apt place we had just moved into had them everywhere, so we went to the front to visit them, as we were walking up, out of the blue a male comes flying in over the mom and her babies (out for swim in the pond) and attack one. Well of course it killed it and so I never took my son up there again, we would leave food out on our porch for when they roomed through the apt complex. We did save one baby one day, when I was driving in saw another male attached but the baby managed to get under a shrub away from the male and I got out and got the male away and got the baby. Took it to a rescue group. But I would watch the babies start out at 25+ and maybe only 2-3 would survive. It seems that once they reached a certain size the males would leave them alone. Now I can't say for sure if this is the way all male ducks (don't even remember the name of this breed) act or not, but considering this was 25 years ago, you can see it made a lasting impression on me and on my son.

I will say that the ducks and greese up north when we lived in northern OH didn't act this way, so come to think of it, maybe it was just this one group of ducks in FL.

Jan

I agree with Lily, mom is just not getting enough rest.

Sorry about your 7D. I keep thinking some of my photos are getting softer too, but then I think it's just me. Your osprey photos don't look anything but perfect to me. Let me know what the tech says please.

Jan, what you have witnessed is awful. I haven't seen any behaviour such as you describe with any of our ducks, but I have seen a group of male Pacific Black Ducks harassing a single female with less than honourable intentions. At our local lake/swamp the main duckling predator seems to be the long-necked tortoises.

Duc, I took the 7D with my 400mm lens back to the place where I bought it. They'll test it out this week. The problem doesn't seem to exist with the 500mm lens and when Denis put the 7D body onto his 800mm lens they were likewise as sharp as. It may be that the lens-camera combination needs calibrating.

Well, one of the chicks has fledged! I received a call from Madam X yesterday to say that one of the chicks was out on the branch flapping its wings like mad. She doesn't know which one it was, and by the time I arrived there yesterday afternoon, all three chicks were on the nest and showed no signs of wanting to leave. I suspect it may be the littlest as it's the one which has been lifting off really high. I haven't seen the other two hovering as high, yet.

They are also feeding themselves. They've been doing a bit of picking at remnants for a few days, but yesterday I saw Big Hook arrive with a fish and leave it for them. She flew off for a bath and returned to the pole branch to preen. Again the littlest one was the leader, hoeing into the fish with great gusto, whilst the other two watched, fascinated.

I was really worried about the little one yesterday. I could see a long, brown strand hanging from its beak. It did a lot of head shaking and scratching, trying to dislodge whatever it was. My mind ran riot and I imagined that it had been the one that had fledged and had gone into the water and had somehow come up with a weed covered bit of fishing line and it had swallowed a hook. Just before I left, it had freed itself from whatever it was. When I downloaded the shots, I could see that it was a long strand of fish guts.

One of its siblings was fascinated by the decoration and stared for minutes at a time. It didn't attempt to get hold of it.