Hellgate Ospreys Montana

[Donna]

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/27/Hellgate_Ospreys/

Very cute, 3rd hatch on the 7th!

[Kris G.]

Sadly, the 1st baby crawled outside the nest bowl a couple nights ago.  Iris never brought it back under her, it was a cold night and it died from exposure. 

[Donna]

OMG, what is wrong with some of these moms lately?? 

[Kris G.]

Egg #4 hatched this AM!  Hopefully lots of fish comes in because the older 2 might not like to share and Osprey chicks bonk like Eagles.

[Kris G.]

Horrible time for Louis & Iris!  Bad storms had made fishing difficult and now an intruder has been relentless..took fish from Louis so babies had no food.  #4 hasn't been seen so is assumed deceased. Louis took a vicious hit from the intruder this AM and they've been looking for him...hope he's ok. 

[Kris G.]

Still no sign of Louis and babies haven't been fed in almost 2 days..not looking good for this family.   

[Kris G.]

From Hellgate Osprey Cam FB page..

Hi everyone,
This has been an extremely traumatic couple of days, and it is a very sad day for all of us associated with the Montana Osprey Project. 

All three of the remaining osprey chicks starved to death, with the biggest one dying this morning.  The ultimate cause has been the difficult fishing conditions, with extremely high and muddy waters.  Just as the rivers were starting to clear a bit, the strong rains of the last few days brought a lot more mud and silt into the rivers.

 I am not sure what effect the extremely aggressive osprey intruder the last couple of days had on Louis' ability to fish.  Osprey intruders are quite common at nests, and we see them every year.  They generally fly close to the nest and often land on them too.  But when they do, they tend to be very submissive, and are eventually show the door.  But the latest osprey intruder was surprisingly aggressive - diving on and hitting Louis right off the nest.  I was concerned that Louis was injured by the attack yesterday.  I combed the bushes underneath the nest and along the river but did not see him.  He did not return to the nest yesterday after he was hit.  I do not know what to make of this aggressive behavior.  Ospreys in general are quite sociable.  I have studied them nesting in large colonies (with MANY osprey nests packed close together) and have never seen this sort of aggression before.

So we all had such high hopes for Iris and Louis this year, especially since this is the first time in three breeding seasons that chicks have hatched in this nest.

The lesson that I take away from this nest camera is an appreciation of the many challenges that wild animals must deal with in order to survive and successfully reproduce.  Iris had spoiled us for so many years by being such a successful osprey mother, and we had perhaps taken success for granted. 

RIP little chicks, Erick Greene

[Donna]

http://youtu.be/ei96jC-blRo

A sweet reunion for Iris and Louis! 

[MAK]

http://youtu.be/ei96jC-blRo

A sweet reunion for Iris and Louis! 

Sweeeeeet it is! 

[Tapper Gal]

http://youtu.be/ei96jC-blRo

A sweet reunion for Iris and Louis! 

It was nice seeing them back on the nest.  Miss not seeing them the past few weeks. Thanks for the post.