Raising Aussie Osprey #7

That sea breeze sure plays havoc with a girls carefully preened head-dress.

The shadow was beginning to reclaim the branch and I was having to time shots to coincide with the wind moving the shadow. I was beginning to freeze up there in the strong evening breeze, so I headed for home with the intention of returning tomorrow.

She looks great Margaret! The pics are wonderful!

As an aside - I've seen a citation of a recent study (Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CISRO Publishing, Collingwood, VIC, Australia) which suggests that Ospreys in Australasia (Australia, New Caledonia, New Guinea) should be separated as a distinct species (Eastern Osprey Pandion cristatus) from those in other parts of the world (Western Osprey Pandion haliaetus).

Whether this will be widely accepted or not, too early to say. The differences cited are that Eastern Osprey is 12-14% smaller, with a darker breast band and a whiter crown, as well as small genetic differences. Based on the photos of this family, I'd say the plumage differences are not really that significant - the male here has just as white a breast as most in Europe do.

Resin

Jeez I wish my bad shots turned out like yours! :)

What a girl! I think the shots are wonderful, Margaret. I know what you mean about possibly missing a day, it is not easy to do!

I find it interesting that it took her that long to eat her fish.

Maybe blowfish taste made her be careful.

Thanks folks. Nanny, the Ospreys eat at a leisurely pace. I've noticed that it will take them roughly an hour to eat a fish.

Resin, that's interesting and by sheer coincidence I was speaking to a Swedish visitor at the nest site this evening and she said that a friend of hers who had considerable knowledge of Ospreys said the Aussie birds were smaller. Her own observations are similar, that the Aussie birds are noticeably smaller and whiter around the head and neck. She also said that the head shape was a little different, our birds having a less rounded shape - more eagle like.

There was high drama at the nest this evening and I was taking a "movie" (if you could call it that) with my little point and shoot because the nest was in shadow and a cloud cover had built up. Mum and Aussie were on the nest when I arrived there late afternoon. They were doing a lot of calling and looking towards the tree where the male hangs out.

Their calling got louder and both mother and Aussie became more agitated and sure enough, the male arrived with a fish, dropped it off like a Fed Ex delivery and departed to the tree directly above me. I'm not sure exactly what happened next as I've yet to download the little bit of video footage, but Mum and Aussie were fighting over the fish. There were sounds of high expressed emotion but no sound of either bird being in real distress and after about 10-15 seconds, Mum flew off and Aussie had the fish firmly clasped in her talons.

There's a number of shots I took after I put the P & S down. They don't capture the drama completely, but will give an idea of the battle. Remember, by the time I got my still camera the major drama was nearly over. These shots are the remnants.

At this stage Mum has the fish and Aussie is kinda sprawled behind her.

There was a real racket going on the entire time.

A tangle of wings and legs.

Aussie was determinedly trying to break through this barrier of wings to get to the poor fish.

I can hear Mom..."I just wanted a bite!"

Wonderful views, Marg.

Thanks Kim. It was the most remarkable event. My heart really goes out to Mum.

The battle continued. In this shot, Mum still has the fish in her left foot and is wanting to go to a place of peace to have a quiet meal.

WOWIE! She's at the rebellious teen stage already!

Yeh, Mrs Ed, she is not displaying any issues related to assertiveness.

Somehow Mum ended up back in the nest. I've checked the data and the time recorded is the same as in the previous shot, so they really are sequential.

Just a pile of wings

Aussie continues to pursue her Mum

Look at how far down Aussie's wing goes down over the nest.

At this stage, Aussie is underneath Mum, determined to wrestle the fish from her.

And so it goes on

The fish is still being held by Mum. It is kinda superimposed on Aussie's leg under Mum's tail.

Aussie continues to make her way to a position of dominance.

This all happened in a matter of ten or so seconds

Within a second, Aussie has the fish and Mum departs the battle ground.

........

Aussie victorious

She hopped around the nest a little with the spoils of war.

..........

Aussie's on the branch with the fish. Mum had returned to the nest. More in the morning.

Wow

I just read your entire series 1-7.........wow! what an education. Thank you so much for sharing!

Wonderful series Margaret...awesome shots of the Osprey!

Totally captivating!

Nanny_56 has said it all! ^_^

Do you think Mum was trying to teach her something, about survival? Very interesting indeed. Gorgeous, gorgeous shots.

Glad you've found Aussie's life story interesting, Wendy and welcome.

Thanks everyone for your ongoing interest. I had a look at the poor quality video I was taking with my P & S this morning and it's such a shame I didn't have the still camera trained on them, but I thought the lighting was too dull to capture anything.

Burn, I don't know if Mum was trying to teach her something. My DH thinks that's possibly what was going on. I hope you and he are right. I was tending to think a little more pessimistically that maybe Mum's preparedness to do battle over the fish was that she isn't getting enough to eat from her own fishing expeditions and was willing to take food from her kid to satisfy her own needs. This flies in the face of everything I've observed over the past three months, where Mum has so patiently and diligently fed the little one and not until Aussie had had her fill did she contemplate having a single morsel for herself. If Aussie subsequently wanted more whilst she was having a feed herself, she would immediately stop and recommence feeding the chick.

I took this shot before the fight started. I love it when I'm able to get the two of them together like this.

This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 3:16 PM

Whilst Aussie was eating the fish up on the branch, Mum returned to the nest. She made no attempt to join Aussie on the branch. After Aussie had finished eating and had wiped her beak clean on the branch, she flew back down to join Mum on the nest.

D'ya know, the more I think of it, the more I'm beginning to think that it may have been a lesson. If Mum's behaviour had been driven by hunger, surely she would have gone up onto the branch and wrestled that pipsqueak for the fish. The fact that she just stood on the nest, preening and dozing indicates to me that she wasn't all that distressed by extreme hunger. Yeh, I like that thought.

Mum could be heard saying "You wilful little brat".