all quiet at the dock and yard near the nest today, male on far side of boat lift, female incubating, hopefully my discussion with the family helped them to respect the ospreys space
i observed the female deep in the nest yesterday and her mate on the other side of the boat lift. today i observed a boy pull a small schiff up to the dock and boatlift, flushing the female off the nest. both ospreys flew over head for about 20 minutes while the boys reopositioned the boat at the dock, female took a few circles over the boys head lowering her feet towards his head, sounding an angry alarm, the boys didnt seem to notice her. I approached by boat and yelled over to them, they said they couldnt hear me, i maneuverd closer and talked as best i could with the osprey screaming and the wind but the gist was they felt since the osprey were there last year ( not productive) that the osprey would be ok this season. i explained that this season was different because now they were incubating eggs. i told them if they continued to flush the birds off the eggs there would not be viable eggs. took the female awhile to land back on the nest just in time for the boys to come back out on the dock again, flushing the female off the eggs once again. i spoke with the mother later and i hope i educated the family on just how difficult and unsafe nesting would be with a nest box on their boatlift for the next 15 years! this is quite frustrating. the state of DE needs to have a better osprey education and resources plan for a growing population of this amazing bird. people dont realize these raptors bond with a nest site for life. making a temporary nest box is actually making a permanent connection with a nest site.
pair is not incubating, female was hunched down today in high wind but she seems more focused on the house and yard that is very close to the nest that is on a boat lift, not that high above the high tide line. poorly placed platform location in my humble opinion.
no osprey activity seen, pair may have moved to the east marsh of James Farm, new snag nest at back of property just north of the Purple Trail of the preserve, visible from Joshua Cove
Sometime prior to 5-5-19 the owners of this boat lift placed a small nest box on the corner of their boat lift to replace the nest material the new osprey pair was dropping directly on the corner of the lift. both birds perch at the box as well on a neighbors dock and they have brought lots of nest material in the past week. there is human activity close by so no egg laying and I hope there won't be this season. the nest could be at high water line in a storm and does not look very secure on the lift. this boat lift is right along the path the Eco bay kayak tour travels regularly so there will be much disturbance this summer. The family that owns the boat lift have a young boy that has been caught harassing other osprey nest sites in seasons past, hoping he has grown up a bit and wont bother these osprey. might be a good learning experience for him in any case.
Past Seasons
Show reports, diaries, and photos from:Current 2019
Activity reports
Photos of this nest
Nesting Diaries