Osprey at Hilton Head right now
A narrow escape! The predator is a goshawk.
Interesting that a goshawk will go after an osprey chick close to fledging, which would be roughly the same weight as a female goshawk.
That's a lucky chick. Goshawks are formidable birds.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
All 3 chicks have now fledged at Borders Ospreys as at 25/07
An eventful morning at Hog Island. Just before 10:30 am local time, Bailey "fludged" off the nest to escape wasps. Her takeoff was great, but she wasn't able to land properly on the tree and fell through the branches. A search party was dispatched, no news yet, but it's thought she had a soft landing.
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Oh hope Bailey is ok
Thank you for that info Pandy. I will keep checking here for any further news. Hope she's ok. Lawd knows she's been through enough!
Marina Kyriacou
The latest......
Bailey was found on the ground, apparently uninjured, and has been placed in a nearby unoccupied nest on a boathouse (the alternative camera view). The wasps had been an ongoing problem at the "home" nest, and also, the warden is alone on the island and didn't have anyone to help him put a ladder up to it.
An adult osprey has recently delivered a fish to the boathouse nest and shared it with Bailey. Not clear whether this was Dad Steve or Mum Rachel, though maybe the latter, as she has also left the home nest.
Here is a video with Bailey being relocated to the alternate nest, which is about 1/4 mile (400 m.) across the bay. It was occupied by another osprey pair who left an egg behind when they abandoned the nest earlier this season. Pretty handy to have a back-up nest - with camera, no less - so close by!
It took very little time for the adults to find Bailey in the new nest. Another tidbit of osprey behavior we don't often witness.
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thank you so much Pandy....great to see.
After the initial apparent success with relocating the chick to the other nest, an adult osprey began to land on the nest and repeatedly tried to push Bailey off. Bailey held her ground and assumed a submissive posture. It's assumed one of the former occupants of the nest returned and didn't like the new tenant. Just around 9pm local time they removed Bailey from the boat house nest and took her back to the area of her home nest. She's not on the nest right now, and scuttlebutt (take it or leave it as you see fit) suggests she's being held off the nest overnight. The parents aren't around the home nest right now, and had distanced themselves from the boat house nest when the unknown adult began landing on it a lot. So much interesting and unusual behavior that can only be explained by minds far greater than my own. :)
Hopefully tomorrow they'll get everything sorted out.
Dottie (?) pushes Bailey
Bailey removed from alternate nest