On Osprey Time

Ophelia and Orpheus (favoring his left eye) with their two hatchlings.   Today, May 29, hatchling #2 arrived in the early morning hours before the solar camera   turned on. Another bobble-headed little creature appeared, barely able to move yet   eager to beg and feed within a few hours of birth. Their tiny bodies teeter and topple as   their muscles learn to support their enormous heads and feet. At the first scent of fish,   their heads poke out from beneath their mother with gaping mouths. Chicks don’t   always eat just after they hatch as they have had plenty of nutrients from the egg that   has sustained them. Ophelia’s chicks were famished by 8:00 AM: Orpheus flew off to   heed their call.   Twenty minutes later, Orpheus brought a large perch to the nest, but instead of giving   the whole fish to Ophelia so that she could feed the chicks, he had other ideas. Orpheus   ripped off pieces of fish and fed them bit by bit to Opheli...

  Nest and trail cameras (cams) are becoming invaluable tools for understanding wildlife,  revealing behaviors we had no idea were occurring. The Salt Point Osprey Cam has  disclosed a number of surprises during these past two years, and now we have another curiosity: Orpheus has been directly feeding Ophelia bites of fish as if she were a  helpless nestling. What is going on?  Orpheus directly feeding Ophelia.  Orpheus normally provisions Ophelia with fish during the day as she incubates the  eggs. He typically leaves it in the nest for his mate or waits for Ophelia to grab it from  his talons. Ophelia then carries the fish off to find perch to eat and Orpheus takes over  the incubation duties. Curiously, in addition to these normal feedings, Orpheus has  been directly feeding Ophelia bites of fish as if she was his offspring. These feedings can happen at anytime and are not in place of meals. Bite after bite, he tears the fish  ap...

  Ophelia chasing a bald eagle away from her mate, courtesy of Karel and Cindy Sedlacek. Last night around 6:00 pm, Orpheus flew past the Salt Point nest towards Myers Park with a fish gripped in his talons. Suddenly Ophelia got agitated, giving off alarm calls   while looking overhead at something.   A full adult bald eagle was following Orpheus, trailing him to Myers Park. In a rare   move, Ophelia took off in hot pursuit of the eagle heading toward her mate. Ophelia cut   the eagle from his course and worked hard to drive the eagle up the lake and away from   Orpheus and his fish. While she was chasing the eagle, Orpheus flew around the nest   platform with his fish, but did not stop. Ophelia kept flying along the railroad tracks,   probably letting off steam, until eventually returning to the nest. Her eggs had been left   alone for well-over five minutes but luckily nothing happened to them. Meanwhile,   Orpheus had returned to the...