10:50 a.m. - Both the male and the female are on the nest. The wind is blowing quite a bit.
10:53 a.m. - The female has settled on the nest, the male still standing on the edge. The male is quite a bit smaller than the female, or so it seems.
11:00 a.m. - The web cam is doing a great job at keeping the picture as clear as possible with as hard as the wind is blowing. The male flew off. What an amazing site. All he had to do was stretch out his wings and let the wind take him away.
Have the eggs hatched yet? I haven't seen any fledglings in the hour or so I've been watching this morning.
The nest status:
Since their return on 3/29/10 the pair have been hard at work building the nest.
On 4/22/10 we observed the female laying down tightly in the nest. This is a good indication that she has an egg or will soon be laying an egg. It is possible, that the very strong winds are causing her to act this way. Time will tell.
We expect the osprey to lay eggs very soon, if they haven't already. Incubation usually begins after the first egg is laid. Some birds, like burrowing owls do not begin incubation until almost all of the eggs are laid.
Both sexes incubate, but female generally does most of the incubation. Female nearly always incubates at night. Male usually provides female with all food during this period; female takes fish to nearby perch and feeds there; male generally incubates while female feeds, but will initiate incubation independent of food transfers.
It takes about 36 days for osprey eggs to hatch. Check out the color on those eggs! Not your average egg color!
This information and photo is from the Birds of North America Series. To learn more, click the osprey info button while you are watching the cam.
