16 June 2022
It happened shortly after the Bald Eagle took the second osplet from the Cowlitz PUD nest. It returned for the third and last of the 2022 chicks.
There is something so terribly sad about seeing an Osprey couple doing well and then in the blink of an eye – three times over – to loose the eggs that they incubated for over a month, the chicks that had been fed and brooded. All gone.
We will never know if the couple had any experience dealing with intruders before – like this. We will never know if the Mum had stayed on the nest would the Osplets have been saved? or might Mum have been injured?
It has been a very sad week in Osprey world. The three osplets – older than the ones at Cowlitz starved because of other Osprey intruders – at the Cape Henlopen State Park nest in Delaware that might have killed the male and injured the female. The third hatch at the Loch of the Lowes was starved and then attacked and killed by the eldest. The third hatch at Loch Arkaig got its foot caught and couldn’t get under Dorcha and was out in the cold rain and died of hypothermia. The third hatch died at Llyn Brenig. It could not get out of the nest cup to eat. All so very, very sad.
Let us all hope that the tragedies at the nests are over.
My sincere condolences go out to the entire Cowlitz PUD family – the Ospreys and all the people behind the scenes that made it possible for us to watch their lives – the good and the bad.
My heart goes out to the wee chicks. Fly high little ones, fly high.
Oh Mary Ann they did come and get all three ! I wonder if anyone knows of an eagle nest being near this nest? It’s horrible to even think about what happened here. Poor little babies. 😢😢😢
One of my readers lives 5 minutes from the lake where the nest is on. I hope to find out more once her company leaves. I am certain there are Eagles nests there and I don’t know the prey/fish situation this year. I hope to find out more. But it is truly gut wrenching.
Osprey nests hide in plain sight….when something like this happens I do believe there are mitigating circumstances that drives an Eagle to take this path. A lost partner? Shortage of food? Harsh circumstances? It’s a last resort simply because osprey nests and contents are always vulnerable and yet its not an Eagles preferred method otherwise how would osprey avoid this predation? My speculation is that the eagle was desperate. Osprey nest always hide in plain sight.
You said that perfectly. They like to have that 360 degree view. Those are great questions, Lisa. Hoping that one of the readers can give us some insights into what the lake is like right now, etc. Last year it was so hot the ospreys could hardly fish. Siblicide/starvation/heat death last year for Electra’s chicks – part of that weather system that brought 50 degree C temperatures with osplets and hawklets jumping off the nest so they didn’t cook in the Pacific NW including Canada’s nests (Osoyoos and others in the Okanagan Valley).