July 7, 2003 Update:: To the visitors to this website: Your observations, comments, questions and good humor via the Message Board and Ospreycam Data Base are an indication of the public's interest in preserving wildlife and the desire to improve the environment we share. We will try to respond to as many of your questions as possible.
— Marilyn Porto Abbey (Retired teacher; osprey watcher)

Commentary: Some of our viewers have been curious about what happens to the osprey chicks once they have fledged. Based on my observations at the T-H-C Lakes hack tower (See June 30 Update for description of hacking) and a natural nest in the same area, the chicks fly back to the nest, or tower and call for food since they don't yet have the skill to fish for themselves. As volunteers at the tower, we stayed hidden behind smoked glass. We cut back on the amount of food offered just before the time of fledging, as the parents do in a natural setting. After fledging, we threw whole fish on the roof for the fledged ospreys. Rarely did the young ospreys return to the actual nest box, but a few landed on the platform (we called it their "deck") just below the roof. Most of the fledged birds landed on the roof. We used a mirror on an extended pole to view bands for identification and to limit our contact with the birds. At this point they were skillful at holding and tearing the fish by themselves.

Some of the fledglings made attempts to fish soon after they left the nest or tower; others were back quickly, begging for a handout. At the natural nest, after several minutes of calling by the young birds, one of the parents usually responded and delivered a fish. As the juveniles ventured further from the nest, the parents were seen bringing fish to them where the young birds were perched in one of several trees across the lake from the nest.

A few of the hacked birds we observed were beginning to enjoy occasional success at fishing at approximately 2-3 weeks after fledging, but most of them were still returning to the tower roof for our offerings 3-4 times a day. Several times during one week, an adult female osprey in the area, with a federal band on her leg, dropped fish off at the tower roof for a hacked juvenile. One fish was an approximately 16" carp with it's head missing. One of our hacked birds picked it up and struggled but successfully carried it off to the dead tree. Other adults were seen feeding the young birds in the dead tree along the shore of the lake about 200+ yards "downhill" from the tower. After about 5 weeks from fledging, we began limiting our offerings to once in the morning and once in the evening to encourage the fledglings to fish on their own. By the end of August and beginning of September, the young ospreys were becoming quite independent and were no longer returning to the hack tower. They were observed fishing in the lake until they presumedly left the area for warmer climates and winter fishing grounds.

Interesting note: We observed one of our young ospreys (and another of our birds joined him) in chasing a bald eagle across the lake away from the favorite dead tree. They did that several times during the week. They also chased a great blue heron from their fishing area. I guess you have to be especially tough when you are hacked! — Marilyn Porto Abbey

Concern: The birds comfort and well being during harsh weather conditions: Osprey have been living and enduring harsh weather extremes for millions of years. They are built for it, and while they might be uncomfortable, they are not suffering. — Thomas K. Shea

Concern: Chick #3 : There have been questions about the passing of chick #3. The simple answer to why we did not come to the chick's aid (aside from the fact that it would have been entirely impractical) is that we have set a policy of observing the "natural" behavior at the nest, with no human intervention. Wildlife management is aimed at preserving wild populations of species in their natural state, not individual animals. Rescuing a weak or submissive chick would not contribute to the health of the population, and may, in fact, have a negative impact. While our human tendency is to want to rescue the weaker chick, we step back and allow the strongest to survive. This subject will be discussed in greater detail in a future update. — Tom Ludlam, Thomas K. Shea, Marilyn Abbey

Frequently Asked Questions about Ospreys

FAQ: What does the chicks' side to side head bobbing mean?

A: I've often see the adult ospreys do this and owls do it a lot, as do some mammals. Here is my understanding of what's going on: Birds have poor color vision so overlapping objects of similar brightness and texture tend to blend together making it difficult to see, for instance a bird against foliage in the background. Moving the head from side to side causes parallax between objects of different distances so they appear to move relative to one another accentuating their outlines. You can try this by closing one eye and moving your head. I've also read about a theory that it enhances depth perception.— Tom Shea

FAQ: What does the female adult do when she leaves the chicks for a while?

A: When the chicks are young, the female is pretty much a "stay at home mom." That is her main job while the male does most of the fishing. When the male parent takes over and gives her a break, I have seen the female fishing, flying, skimming her feet along the top of the water or just perched within sight of the nest watching, or sometimes eating.— Marilyn Abbey

Other Basic Information

Location and access to the nest:

The nest you have been viewing is located on the Wertheim Wildlife Refuge in Brookhaven, LI and this is a federal wildlife refuge, which for the protection of nesting birds and their habitat, is closed to public access. It is near the mouth of the Carmans River. The only place to view the nest is from the water around where the river empties into the Northeast corner of Bellport Bay. — Tom Shea

The nest and the grass: The nest is entirely the work of the birds. Only the pole and platform is manmade. This is an old and unusually large osprey nest. It has been built up over the years and is now around 5 feet across at the base and stands nearly that high above the platform. The grass was a complete surprise to everyone. It's most likely the result of seeds that passed through the digestive process of either the ospreys or the various small birds that nest frequently near the outside periphery of the nest, combined with the large amount of rain we've had. Because of the height and location in a wetland there is no reasonable way to cut the grass even if we were allowed to, but the good news is that it will likely die away as the normal summer dryness finally sets in. — Tom Shea

Technical/camera questions:

Camera and Microphone

As shown in the picture on the Ospreycam web page, the camera and microphone are mounted on a 12 foot steel arm that extends out and above the nest. The only adjustment we have is to vary the angle of view with the zoom lens. We have changed this several times when the eggs were laid and as the chicks have grown. The equipment at the nest was installed on the pole in late winter before the birds returned from their winter migration. Every effort was made to minimize the impact on the returning birds.
For instance, when we noticed that many osprey nest poles include a perch on an arm off to the side of the nest we knew that the camera arm wouldn't interfere with the birds. In fact we added one above the camera. It saw little use until the chicks hatched and it's now used frequently by both parents. Because we cannot visit the nest site until the birds leave, the system is designed to be reliable in the extremes of weather. So far so good. The one failure we've had was with the network which was located away from the nest site.

Video at night

The light we use for nighttime images is a deep red and very dim. Considerably less than moonlight. It is barely visible to humans. This is combined with a very sensitive camera running at a slow shutter speed to give images that appear much brighter than what we would see in person.

Reception of the picture and sound

The internet is not as reliable as over the air or cable television for delivering video. The data for the video is sent in bunches or packets. These can arrive at the viewers computer late or out of order which causes the picture or sound to freeze. This depends on several things, but mostly by the amount of traffic at a given time at various points in the path through the network. When this happens the picture or sound can stop or the quality degrade. With the current technology the only way around this with a given connection is to reduce the picture size or quality, or both.

Timeline at this nest Submitted by Dave Shore:

Adult ospreys arrive March 23, begin fixing nest and doing their spring ritual of he feeds her, she submits to copulation, they both build on the nest.

The first egg is laid April 8, second April 11, third April 15, fourth and
last on April 18. Both adults take turns sitting on the eggs.

First chick hatches on May 17 at approximately 7:00 AM. Male stops sitting on chick and eggs, female assumes full duty, male supplies fish.

Second chick hatches May 17 at approximately 6:00 PM, the third hatches May 20 around 1:00 PM and the fourth on May 24 around 6:00 AM. Fourth chick only survives a few hours, the weather was cool and very wet.

Initially all three remaining chicks got fed regularly. Starting on May 25, the older, bigger two chicks began their aggression against the younger third chick. They would take turns pecking and blocking the chick from feeding until they had eaten themselves to sleep. As time passes the aggression becomes more frequent and severe.

Beginning in June, the by now much smaller third chick is regularly kept from feeding. The pecking and pushing are more severe and the third chick is forced to lay still while the other two feed. If there is anything left when the older chicks are done, the female feeds it to the third chick.

By June 11, the third chick is no longer getting fed, or very little. It
dies sometime on June 13, but remains in the nest until the next day. We are trying to figure out how it was removed by reviewing the archives.

June 14, the remaining two chicks begin aggression against each other, they stand and stretch their necks and wings and then peck. The dominant one then would get behind the other and herd it to the edge of the nest where it is forced to lay with it's head down. The dominant one then eats until satisfied and the other gets what is left. The adults show no sign of intervening. Both chicks are about the same size and have lots of feathers coming in. They will stand facing the wind and flap their fuzzy wings, stretching and exercising. They also are very vocal, calling out like the hen when she is calling the male.

June 27, the chicks were observed practicing takeoffs by facing into the wind, flapping their wings and hopping into the air a few inches, then landing back in the nest. The chicks have also become very vocal. They sound like the adults, although not quite as loud.

July 3, oldest chick is given some fish and left to feed itself. The chick covers the fish with semi-spread wings while feeding to keep the other chick away. The hen is not on the nest. The chicks are getting better at lifting off in the nest, frequently flapping their wings and hopping around. They flap for longer and longer stretches as they get stronger.

Please tune in at the ospreycam for the possible first flight of an osprey chick!