June 13, 2003 - Baby Osprey Chicks!

This is the moment for which we have all been waiting.  These are the first looks at the baby ospreys that we knew were in the nest from feeding activity, but had not yet seen.  In the highlighted area, are two tiny osprey heads, each about the size of a 50 cent piece. Parents C09 (right) and mate (left) are looking on.

What is not obvious in the first image is that C09 has a 10 inch fish in his left talon.  Here he is pulling off another morsel to feed one of the chicks, whose heads can still be seen in the center of the picture.  He fed part of this fish to the chicks, ate some himself, and gave some to his mate.

C09 holds a fairly large fish morsel, too large for chicks this small.  He ate part of it, and fed one of the chicks the remainder.

The chicks are about 2 weeks old, based on observation data collected by OWSEM volunteers.

Here C09 is feeding the remainder of the morsel above to one of the chicks.

While we have seen two chicks together, there may be more in this nest, not visible.  We will know more about the nest contents on Monday, June 16th when a nest survey is performed by DNR staff and OWSEM volunteers.

This final image is of C09 returning to the nest after driving off intruders.  The intruders were osprey C5, who seems to have found a mate, and ospreys C22 and mate.  They came to Wildwing Lake to visit, but were driven away by C09 and his mate. At one point, no parents were on the nest guarding the osprey chicks. Even though it was upsetting to see the nest unguarded, it was wonderful to see six ospreys flying over Wildwing Lake at one time!