Blog # 391 Hatch Day!


The first chick to hatch, courtesy of Dickson County Conservation Board.


Tuesday, May 24 is Hatch Day 2022 at the Salt Point nest. Ursula, although a young mother, is proving herself capable so far. She stands up more than normal to peer under her belly at the new life below. Orpheus is showing the greatest reaction as he acts like he wants to incubate but knows he is not allowed. He walks around the perimeter of the nest as Ursula incubates. Tending to the young is Ursula’s job alone. Ursula stares at the hatchling below her and touches it gently with her beak. 


This new life, so amazing and dependent is going to grow remarkably fast. At birth, chicks weigh an average of 50 grams (0.1 lb.), or the weight of three cherry tomatoes. In six weeks they will be adult size—2 lbs. for males and up to 4 lbs. for females. Egg #2 should hatch in three days on May 27 and egg #3 on May 30th.


Eyes to the sky!


Candace

 

Candace E. Cornell 

Friends of Salt Point, Lansing, NY

Cayuga Lake Osprey Network

  


HELP PROTECT OSPREYS:

  • Eggs will be hatching soon. Stay 300 feet away from nesting sites during the breeding season. 

If the Osprey vocalizes, you are too close! Back off Immediately.

  • Carry binoculars to view wildlife from afar.

  • Help keep local waters clean, healthy, and safe.

  • Recycle used fishing lines, twine, and nets, which can kill Osprey.

Join the Cayuga Osprey Network and volunteer to help monitor Osprey nests: cec222@gmail.com



EYES TO THE SKY!


WATCH!

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam


READ!

On Osprey Time: Ospreys of Salt Point


VISIT!

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #481 Sunshine at Last!

Image
  Last week’s 2 week old chicks. Now they look completely different, courtesy of Facebook. Meteorologists report this is the 6 th  day of sun in all of May with more rain in the forecast. This is good for the plants but potentially damaging to the Ospreys. Foul weather rots eggs and makes hunting difficult to impossible at a time when the hatchlings are most vulnerable to the starvation, cold, and predation. Despite the challenges of fishing in windy, rainy conditions, Orpheus succeeded in keeping the family fed by catching small, nearshore fish and making up for deficiencies with large trout whenever there was a break in the weather. A foggy morning feeding the 2 ½ week-old chicks, Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. The 3 week-old chicks in their reptilian phase, courtesy of YouTube. Oakley, the eldest chick, just turned two-weeks old and is passing into the Reptilian Phase,  where the now darker, scaly chicks. In this transitional phase Oakley’s buff down is quickly replaced w...
Read more

Blog #482 Where Ospreys are Starving

Image
Male Osprey landing a beauty, enough to feed the entire family trout, courtesy of Patrick Marshall. Ospreys of the Cayuga Lake Osprey colony, live in the stunning heart of New York’s Finger Lakes of a terrific about centered on Cayuga Lake may lull us into complacent thinking that all is well in their world. Life for Ospreys near Cayuga is certainly good for our in this inland colony with lots to eat and seeming endless nesting possibilities, but an ecological tragedy is in the making not far away. Osprey chicks are starving and whole colonies collapsing in the Chesapeake Bay region, home of the world’s highest concentration of breeding Ospreys (until recently estimated at 10,000 breeding pairs). The tragedy is caused by a sharp decline of their dietary staple, menhaden, called “the most important fish in the sea” by author H. Bruce Franklin. Ospreys, striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, whales, and a myriad of other coastal and marine species dependent on menhaden for food are all declin...
Read more

Blog #461 Sneak Peek at Osprey Season 2024

Image
  Orpheus (L) and Ursula at their Salt Point Nest March 26, courtesy of Cindy Sedlacek. The following is a sneak peek at what this Osprey summer will entail. Our northeastern Ospreys return to their breeding habitats just after the early spring thaw. This year’s first Osprey was seen in Cayuga Lake Basin on March 15, an early date many attribute to  the mild winter. Most nest occupants will have returned to their nests and reunited with their mates by this weekend. These returning Ospreys have just completed their 2,000–4,000-mile migrations from their wintering areas along the coasts of South America and in the wild Amazonian tropics. The range of landscapes that a cosmopolitan Osprey can experience in its lifetime is staggering. In general, the older breeding males arrive on their nests followed by their mates in a few days. After that first wave of older Ospreys arrive, unmated adults and second-year birds migrating north for the first time after spending two years in the S...
Read more