This week’s report finds that Ozzie and Harriet and their three nestlings (David, Ricky and Lucy) remain well. We visited them yesterday and took these images then. The nestlings seem to be growing a quarter of an inch a day and they’ve instinctively developed that osprey head-shifting move (like a bobble doll) to get focus and depth perception. Here’s Harriett and Ricky, the second-born, having a conversation about when Dad will bring lunch:
David, the first-born, has been trying his large (but not fully-feathered) wings – flapping away for minutes without getting any lift and often whacking his mother or nest mates.. Maybe, he’s grabbing the bottom of the nest to avoid lift.
Harriet occasionally leaves the nest for short flights to stretch her own wings and to check out the neighborhood:
The ospreys recognize me. When I arrive, Harriet calmly watches me set up my tripod and put out my chair, as do the nestlings, if they’re up, and Ozzie if he’s around. Then, the raptors go back to what they’ve been doing.
It’s rare, but sometimes a stranger comes by my shaded vantage point and asks what I’m doing, as one did yesterday — with a tail-wagging dog on a leash. As usual in such a situation, Harriet went bonkers. She sounded the osprey Code Red alert and flew off the nest; Ozzie appeared out of nowhere; the nestlings disappeared into the bottom of the nest, and Ozzie and Harriet circled loudly shouting “Go Away!” in osprey-speak, often giving us the evil eye.
When the stranger and his amazed dog left, Harriet returned to the nest and calmly preened; Ozzie disappeared again, and the youngsters sat up, seemingly relieved that the drill was over. Soon, Ozzie returned with lunch for Harriet and the kids, usually a fish that Ozzie has decapitated for his own lunch. Here we see Mom and the kids waiting for their take-out meal to be brought home by Dad (left to right: Harriet, Lucy in shadow, Ricky, and David, all watching Ozzie in landing mode):
Ozzie usually stays on the nest only for a few minutes, then leaves. But he seems to be always within hearing distance of Harriet’s calls, often perched atop a nearby spruce scanning the sky for intruders (especially bald eagles and other ospreys) for him to drive out of his protected airspace:
(Brooklin, Maine)