I took this photo yesterday, the first day I was sure the osprey pair have chicks. You can see two little heads peeking out over the top. The second is behind the sticks and is a little harder to see. The male was there when I first arrived back at my car (I park a couple of hundred feet from where the nest is), but he flew off. He had brought the female a fish which she was feeding to the babies. So, after five years, they finally have produced offspring - but there is still a long way to go.
It was ospreys 5, eagles 0 yesterday. The osprey were harassing the eagles more intensely than I had seen previously. They were dive bombing them in the trees down near the bridge and the eagles were fussing at them. Then, they would fly back to the nest. Maybe something had occurred earlier before I got there. I do know they do not want the eagles anywhere near their nest.
This nesting box was poorly thought out. It is too deep and too small. You can see how big the mother is and the father is the same size. Once the chicks get as big as the parents, that box is going to seem extremely small. Especially if she has three, which is not uncommon. Imagine five birds the size of the mother sitting in that box. There won't be any room to turn around and the chances of accidentally knocking one out of the nest are high, it seems to me. I wish they had done a better job of designing it. The one down at North Beach is much nicer being only half as deep and almost twice the area of this one.
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