osprey fledgling

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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 Neighborhood 4 photos August 26, 2017
The cooler air has a lot of birds out and about.
 
This fledgling osprey has a nice sized fish dangling below her wing and her “rivets” are glowing.
 
 
A spectacular osprey launch.
 
 
Accipiters can be tricky to identify.
I believe this is an immature Cooper’s hawk who zipped past me and into the far pine trees.
 
 
It is always a little disconcerting to see long legged birds way up in trees.
However, they often do just that!
But I didn’t let that stop me from photographing this great egret.
 

By Images

The ospreys are fledging at Jordan Lake – taking their first flights.

Male osprey fledgling. Note his orange eye. Adults have a golden eye.


This is a female osprey fledgling. Her dark feathered “brooch” marks her gender.


A little easier to see her dark neck patch.


By far the easiest way to tell that these ospreys are fledglings are by the white “rivets” on their feathers.


The “rivets” are white dots at the ends of their feathers and will wear off as they age.

By …and the take-off

Thought y’all might enjoy the other end of the fledgling osprey’s flight.
After being puzzled by watching us watching her,
the youngster took off to practice her new skills.

WALK9177 08-28-16 @ 09-49-41 Ebenezer osprey fishing