Fledgling Osprey

A family of osprey built this nest along the roadway, using everything they could find, including baling string, which you can see hanging down. On this particular day, we stopped to observe and found the two chicks in the nest.

Before long, one of the parents came along with this fish in its claws.

She hangs out for a few minutes, but doesn’t give up the fish. In fact, she flew away with it still in her claw. It was then we realized she was tempting the chicks to follow her in flight.

We watched as one chick did indeed fly after her, in a large circle, and came back to the nest.

All the while, the other parent had been sitting on this power post, watching, completely undeterred by the fake owls that I guess were put up to discourage nesting in this particular location.

The adult came back after a few minutes. The second chick wasn’t quite as brave, but did flap its wings and hover above the nest for a few seconds. Two days later we drove past again and they had all left.