Observations & Images
16 March 2006
12th day of incubating
THE NEIGHBORS
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Observations & Images
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| A busy day for both Ospreys, especially for the male, who spent a lot of time working on the nest. Here he is about to land with material for the nest. Note the female's head is visible at the right watching him carefully from where she is sitting on the eggs. | |
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Another trip found a long piece of material streaming out behind him from his talons. |
| After dropping off the material seen above, he passed close overhead going outbound toward the Indian River Lagoon. | |
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The male Osprey returned with a fish. Here he is seen raising his foot to offer the fish to the female Osprey who excitedly reaches out for it. |
| There was some difficulty in getting the fish free of the male's talons. | |
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Here she flies off to her eating perch to consume the fish. |
| She eventually returned to the nest carrying a small piece of leftover fish. | |
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An amusing problem given the size of the nest and the long wingspan of the Ospreys is that they sometimes get wrapped up in each other. The male retrieved the leftover fish from the female. |
| The male flew off the nest with the leftover fish in his bill. Here he is seen transferring the fish from his bill to his talons while flying. | |
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He flew into the pines now carrying the leftover fish in his talons. |
| Shortly afterward he reappeared carrying a stick for the nest. | |
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He lands in the nest carrying the stick seen above. The female Osprey's head can just be seen at lower right obscured by a number of twigs. |
| The male took over nesting duty allowing the female, seen here, time to herself. She spent most of the time on her eating perch scratching various itches. David Gessner believes the nests are probably infested with bugs since his Ospreys seemed troubled as well. The female would naturally suffer the worst of it since she spends most of her time on the nest while the male Osprey has the added luxury of being able to take periodic dips into the Lagoon while fishing which would keep any infestation under control. Something the female cannot do. She remained off the nest until after sunset when she returned to switch positions with the male. | |
THE NEIGHBORS |
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| A trespassing male Osprey who had the impertinence to hover over the nest---he is seen here craning his head downward for a better look---caused quite a commotion involving loud, piercing warning cries from both the resident Ospreys. The intruder flew off after satisfying his curiosity. | |
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The female Red-Bellied Woodpecker appeared as the Sun went below the horizon. She approaches the cavity seen above her in the picture which is located just below the Osprey nest in a neighboring pine trunk. |
| The Red-Belly enters the cavity. | |
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She enjoys the view in the last light of the day. |