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6:00pm MDT

Mom was brooding, Dad standing by. Both went on alert, an Osprey flew low beneath nest out over the river. Mom stood, watched and then took off. Dad watched a bit longer and took off, leaving eggs home alone

Mom immediately returned and took up brooding and sky watching. It's now 5 minutes and all seems well.

Have to go feed my animals and fix dinner, but will keep checking.

FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010

No drama yet this morning

5:04 AM
Checked the cam and Mom is on the nest.


5:09 AM
Mom flies off leaving the eggs alone


5:10 AM
Mom returns and resumes incubation


By 6:15 AM
Mom is still on the nest incubating the eggs. No sign or Dad or the intruding female yet this morning.

sorry I have to leave for work now.

9:17 am
Mum comes in to relieve Dad!
I had a clear view of the three eggs - all is well there!



9:30 am
Mum flies off and leaves the eggs - and either returns - or this is the other Osprey??
Anyway - eggs are being incubated -whoever this is!

9:48 am
A couple of minutes ago an osprey tried to land and was warned off by the incubating osprey. I still haven't sorted out who is who, though the osprey on the nest looks fairly small so might be Dad. Anyway, it didn't look like a fierce confrontation - more like a "sorry, kid, but we're busy and it's time for you to find your own nest" sort of confrontation.

(I think I'm becoming convinced that the visitor is probably a previous offspring - and finding it interesting that they can recognize a previous offspring.)

I haven't tried to find it yet, but Jazzel mentioned on another forum that there's a blog with biologist reports that goes with this cam (hmm - maybe I should check the first post ). It will be interesting to see if they have any comments on the visits by the third osprey.

Added
I was just headed to the "random osprey news" thread to post that the Maine osprey cam was back online, and saw a post by gerard describing the return of what was likely an adult offspring - link. So maybe it is more common than I realized.

The chicks from this nest are all banded. At least as far back as 06 when the cam was installed and I can find out from the Lisa McDonald if it's further back.

I have a few things to do today, but will try to keep an "eagle eye" on the activities.

The two females are so closely marked I don't know if I can identify them even when standing next to each other. Siblings maybe? from a different nest. I do not see bands on these girls.

As a side note: I seem to recall one of the eagle nests in the Channel Island group had two females and one male.

The cams do make things interesting for us and for the biologists.

At this time, 10:40 MDT Dad is brooding.

10:20 am
Two on the nest - there was a prolonged changeover - but finally the incumbent took off!

Thanks for the additional information, BET! I knew you'd be on top of it.

Quote by: BET

As a side note: I seem to recall one of the eagle nests in the Channel Island group had two females and one male.

I do know about that nest - it was the West End nest, and while the two females were not biologically sisters, they were released together from a hacking tower as part of the effort to bring bald eagles back to the Channel Islands. Wray and a male whose identity escapes me initially started nesting in 1991, and Dianna joined them a year later. The initial male disappeared before the 2006 nesting season, at an age of 25, and was replaced by the current male K01 (aka Superman). Dianna disappeared before the 2008 nesting season - we're hoping she left the islands to set up her own nest, but know she was getting up in years (she and Wray were brought to the islands from BC as chicks in 1986, so would be 24 now). So if my math is right, they were a threesome for 15 years.

2:20pm

Mom was brooding. Stood up to readjust the eggs. Then seemed to go on alert. The jerky cam transmission makes it difficult to tell if spreading her wings was just getting ready to take off, or a warning motion.

Anyway, she took off, was gone only a minute. Landed and went right back to brooding the eggs.