Jordan Lake State Park

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By JL Raptor report: Update on Broken Feather, 6 photos, 07/13/2018
Broken Feather Update 7/13/2018
 
I got to the lake edge this morning and found Broken Feather on a log at the shoreline.
 
 
She was trying out a new way to fish – not an osprey way at all.
Maybe she had been watching great blue herons stalk the shoreline and go after a fish.
There is an deep pool of water at her feet.
 
 
A fish flashed by and Broken Feather made a leap – talons flared in hopes of catching the fish.
 
 
Broken Feather was almost hidden by the reeds between us as she hit the water.
 
 
Thankfully, ospreys swim well even when they are mad that they have made a miscalculation.
 
 
She missed the fish and I missed the shot of her jumping back up on the logs.
Twice she tried this way to catch a fish and twice she missed.
We will have to see what she does the next go-around.
Dad osprey did bring a fish later in the morning and both Broken Feather and Piper had a meal in the nest.
Her tail made her jink hard to the left as she approached the rim of the nest.
 
 

By JL Raptor Report: Concern at Ranger Cove 4 photos, 07/12/2018
Ranger Cove Concern
 
The osprey nest in Ranger Cove has 2 fledglings – Piper and Broken Feather.
I had expected Broken Feather to be the first to fledge as she had been the most active in trampolining and muscle building.
Her brother Piper fledged several days before she did.
I did not see Broken Feather fledge – it was almost 2 days before I got back to the Cove and found her in the air – kinda.
All fledgling raptors do a lot of crash landings as they learn to fly so I wasn’t too concerned that she was having some troubles.
Then over the past two days I realized that her turns were erratic and she had to fight hard to gain altitude back into the nest.
Broken Feather finally got within good range of my lens and I could see her problem.  
She is missing a large chunk of the the right hand side of the midpoint of her tail feathers.
The youngster has a LOT of grit.  She keeps working at the flying.
PS: I had originally called her Bossy, but you can see why I changed her name.
Please keep her in your thoughts and I will do my best to post her progress.
 
Here is Broken Feather (the upper osprey) and her brother Piper (the lower bird).
 
Here you can see the section of tail feathers she is missing.  
Note also the white “rivets” at the ends of her wing feathers – typical for a juvenile osprey.
 
In this photo Broken Feather looks pretty normal.  She is showing the typical red-orange juvenile osprey eye.
 
At attempt at a landing and you can see the disrupted tail feather position.

By JL Raptor: Ranger Cove 07/09/2018
Ranger Cove
 
As I pulled into the parking area, I could see an osprey doing screaming dives into the treetops of the cove.
That kind of angry dive usually meant an eagle was intruding.
I gathered up my camera and headed down the path toward the water.
Got half-way down and an eagle screamed somewhere above me.  I froze in place.
Eagle got quiet and so did the osprey. I thought the eagle had flown out.
I finally eased down to the water’s edge.  
My friend eased down beside me as the osprey made another screaming run at the eagle.
Here is what exploded over our heads.  I honestly don’t know which adult eagle it is.