Island Creek Ospreys

Tag: Perfects

  • 2022.2  Building Code Spat over Split-Level

    2022.2  Building Code Spat over Split-Level

    In 2022 the fledge classes of 2019 and 2020 roared into town, as obstreperous as ever the old Gang of Six. Youngsters canvased Island Creek through the summer, dipping into nests to attempt a claim, some ready to fight then and there.

    Mark 8 balancing and Ethel not cooperating.

    Mark-8 and Ethel remained adamant about their possession of Nest 1, although neither were into nestorations. They persevered as non-traditionalists. Mark 8 wasn’t into fish delivery. And Ethel wasn’t into mating.

    When Mark-8 zoomed in for a mating attempt—an approach favored by most lower-creek males—he’d have to walk Ethel’s shoulders down to force her tail up. If he succeeded with that, he’d have to walk his way back up to position his tail beneath hers. If all of this was accomplished, Ethel would swish her tail like she was all in, but whenever I caught a glimpse, she was all out of alignment.

    Note: Ornithologists say Osprey do not trade fish for copulation, not in a tit for tat kind of way. The male necessity is to override his own survival instinct and give his fish away. So, while the giving is a huge thing, possibly even tied to his perception of masculinity, the female needs to calculate, Is it enough? He must feed her, her chicks, and himself. A miscalculation could trap her into a lifetime of begging calls and drudgery.

    A new couple arrived in mid-April. I named them George and Martha for no reason at all. George began building a split-level atop a Purple Martin hotel rusted hollow. It was mounted at the toe of the L-shaped pier that separated the old Osprey nests from the new.

    While George’s efforts sometimes appeared within the realm of possibility, they also smacked of the style of Mark-6, who in 2022 continued sliding sticks down Marker 6. George incorporated the sticks that fell off the Purple Martin hotel into the circle of rope, fabric, and various detritus comprising the garden level of his castle sprawled across the pier.

    Just like that, the Bennets got another atypical neighbor flanking them on the north. None of the neighborhood took it well.

    Previous episode: 2022.1 Time Speeds Up

    Upcoming episode 2022.3 Territorial Negotiations

    Photos by author, taken with iPhone clamped to telescope. Versions in post were “sharpened” by Copilot AI.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2021-5: Mr. Bennet Was My Favorite

    2021-5: Mr. Bennet Was My Favorite

    Big Daddy delivers a fish to Big Mama, whose crop looks depleted, so she’s probably hungry.

    The Bennets’ two chicks behaved like characters in a Sesame Street episode about sharing.  One would take a bite from a parent as the other watched and waited for the next bite. They were so considerate of one another I named them Jane and Elizabeth Bennet. Ornithologists would attribute such an idyllic first clutch to Mr. B’s true excellence at fishing.

    Note: Food shortages create bullies, according to ornithologists. Fish provide everything for Ospreys including hydration. Everything. There is no second choice.

    I never saw more than two hatchlings at the Bennets’ nest, but three heads initially popped above the lip at Ethel’s and the Perfects’ nests. The eldest in those two nests bullied and the youngest in each nest quickly perished, a pattern in nests on internet Osprey cams as well. Osplet bullying is violent and will ultimately result in siblicide.

    Note: I think “Osplet” and “nestorations” are words created by contemporary, online birders. They mean what they sound like they mean.

    Ample food at the Perfects’ nest ultimately allowed the second chick to catch up in size and gradually reduced that bully’s aggression. The nest calmed down and the two surviving Perfect chicks fledged on equal terms.

    Conversely to the other families’ nests, Ethel drudged mostly solo to fledge two chicks from Nest 1. Which led to her ultimately inappropriate name, in honor of Vivian Vance’s character on “I Love Lucy.” Ms. Vance, it was reported, resented Ethel’s characterization as a drudge. But that was the job.

    Ethel’s job, as a young, first-time mother, was to  fledge Osplets with her nest-mate, who didn’t bring home the fish. Not quite accurate. He’d bring it home, he just couldn’t let it go.

    Ethel in Nest 1 with her nest-mate on the perch

    He resembled Mark-6, taller, leaner, both with pure white chests, minimal and similar dark feather markings on their heads. They flew in tandem as if choreographed, swooping above the creek. He flew with Ethel before the eggs arrived. They’d occasionally flown as a trio.

    But he just couldn’t let go of his fish.

    Previous Episode 2021.4 Pride and Prejudice 

    Upcoming Episode 2021.6  Ethel as Heroine

    these are the original iPhone via telescope photos take by author; versions posted above by AI Copilot

  • 2021-4: Pride and Prejudice

    2021-4: Pride and Prejudice

    Mr. Bennet is landing on Nest 2, probably aiming for Mrs. Bennet’s back.

    The accommodating and unaccommodating Osprey pair of Nest 2 will be named Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, after their chicks hatch. The chicks will look like big, healthy girls when they fledge. But when Natasha dropped in, Mrs. Bennet hadn’t yet laid an egg, though she was ready. She stuck close to the nest except to dine at a nearby piling, within sight of the nest. She ignored the cuckoo egg.

    Not Mr. B. When he next delivered a fish to the nest, he brooded Natalie’s egg while Mrs. B dined on her piling.

    He carried on like this until Mrs. B began laying eggs a few days later, in the bowl she and Mr. B had carefully prepared, up and apart from the lip where Natasha had laid. Mr. Bennet’s attention transferred quickly to the eggs of the future Misses Bennet.

    Incubation can be pretty dull, viewed at the lip of the nest. The first surmise of a living hatch is an adult with food in its beak leaning into the nest bowl. Counting begins when heads start bobbing, which depending upon nest construction, takes at least a week.

    Big Mama and Big Daddy

    Only one head ever popped above the lip of the Bigs’ nest in 2021. Anyone’s guess the parentage. The Bigs had begun the season on bad terms, Big Daddy a month late, not showing until well into April while Big Mama had battled daily intruders.

    Mrs. Perfect

    Some assistance came the upstream neighbors, their nest also attracting intruders. These neighbor to the north were the exception to my 2021 naming. The Captain and I had years before named this pair the Perfects, practically the day they arrived. We named them after family, whose lawn we’d long commented upon.

    In 2021, the experienced Perfects, the novice Bennets, and a beleaguered Ethel fledged two chicks apiece from their considerably different nests.

    Image at top of post is taken from this photo by author via iPhone attached to a middling telescope. Copilot “sharpened”the image used at the top.

    Previous Episode: 2021.3: Birds Labor Too 

    Upcoming Episode:  2021.5  Mr. Bennet Was My Favorite