There has been an important development in the saga of Ozzie and Harriet, the ospreys that we’ve been monitoring since April: We’ve actually seen the suspected third nestling in the family’s fine Brooklin waterfront home. We’re calling her Lucy for identification purposes. She seems as active as her apparently older siblings, David and Ricky (“the Boys”).
Now that the nestlings are about three weeks old, Harriet takes frequent short flights, leaving them home alone. She often comes back to the nest with part of a branch, to (sometimes literally) spruce up her home. In the image here, she’s returning on July 3; if you look closely, you’ll see the tops of the heads of Lucy and the Boys.
Ozzie is still delivering fish daily to the family and always is flying or perched close by. We’ve recently seen him take off screaming after a high-flying bald eagle that was not interested in ospreys or a fight with one.
Brutus, the spurned osprey that attacked Harriet several times while she was brooding, has not been seen for months.
Ozzie sometimes flies to the nest for no apparent reason other than visitation. When he does, things get crowded there. He has to step gently, picking his large taloned feet up high and placing them down carefully to avoid the tottering youngsters. Ozzie also collects hefty pieces of wood for Harriet’s home renovation, as he was doing here on July 6:
(Brooklin, Maine)