LOCH GARTEN OSPREY GABFEST for APRIL and MAY, 2018

I now favour for this nest that EJ abandons these eggs and feeds up and gets herself in shape.. then whilst she is off the eggs are predated so she does not sit for over 60 days as Lady did. At least Lady got fed.

Seeing plenty of Ospreys in FL.

Sounds very reasonable, Keith.  It is horrible to watch EJ suffer while patiently sitting on the eggs, eggs which may not be viable anyway.

Last year EJ "abandoned" her chicks only after they had all died.  I am now worrying that thinking the eggs are live, she will stay on them too long for her own welfare.  Others are confident she will take care of herself as needed.  I hope so.  I have long since given up hopes of any chicks this year, pessimist that I am.

Ann, I never did get your posts answered as much as I wanted.  Did I ever say that I agree with you about either or both of the eggs being fertilized.  Which makes it even more difficult to watch EJ patiently incubating them while going hungry.

Keith, .  I hope you and Susan are both having a great time with Mickey and Minnie.

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Evening, June, That is a lovely shot but heartbreaking as well.  I hope EJ goes fishing very soon.

June, Apologies that I have not yet answered your questions about Ocracoke (I finally looked it up, apparently it has no 'k' but only 'c' although I prefer it with the 'k'!)  For starters, it was a very long time ago, probably about 1990, too long ago to remember much else except for the Osprey nest we watched from the balcony!  We knew a couple living in Raleigh who had friends who had a cottage on Ocracoke.  They let the 4 of us use it for a few days.  We drove from Raleigh to the coast and took a car ferry to the island (sorry but we did not visit anywhere else on the NC coast, except later we drove to South Carolina to visit some other friends for a day).  The balcony of the cottage faced the Intracoastal Waterway, not the ocean beach.  Looking directly out from the cottage over the Waterway we could see a post sticking up out of the water and on its top was an Osprey nest.  The nest was about level with us sitting on the balcony; we had a fantastic view.  Although I'd seen Ospreys prior to that visit, I had never watched them feeding chicks.  We were fortunate that while we enjoyed a cup of tea the male delivered a fish and the female took it from him and began feeding the chicks.  I was struck by the contrast between the fierce appearance of the female and her gentleness when feeding her chicks.

Oh, I just remembered that during the ferry crossings we fed the Laughing Gulls who were following the ferry.  The Gulls would queue up and take turns snatching bits of food which we'd thrown up into the air--lovely.

As for seeing any other parts of the USA, yes I have, a few places, but that's another story.