Ospreys are clearly one of the highlights while visiting the Wildlife Drive at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville. Visitors are given a glimpse into the lives of these fascinating birds through the placement of their man-made nesting platforms along the Drive. One photographer, Tom Sangemino documented their nesting season from beginning to end and created a wonderful slideshow. Within the slideshow Tom also chose to educate people about the restoration of ospreys in New Jersey and ways that you can get involved to help their continued success!
Three nestlings produced at the Osprey Cam nest are banded for future tracking!
by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager
In the late afternoon of June 24, 2014, I kicked off the 2014 Osprey Nesting Surveys by banding the three nestings at the Osprey Cam nest. I was joined by Ann Marie Mason Morrison, with Friends of Forsythe NWR, our founding partner with the Osprey Cam, and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interns, Jessie and Kirsten who helped bring out all the equipment needed to the nest (two 20′ ladders).
This is one of the most difficult nests to reach in all of New Jersey! It either takes a boat (at high tide) or two 20′ ladders (at low tide) to cross a 15′ wide ditch on the coastal salt marsh. Anyone who has crossed the ditch can attest to how difficult it is. Now you can watch and see what when into banding these three nestlings. A portion of the video was cut when I was attempting to repair the sound at the camera equipment box. At the same time the nest was cleaned of harmful plastic debris that the birds used as nesting material. A total of 3 balloons and a plastic bag were removed from the nest. The three young were banded with USGS bird bands (1088-04358,59 & 60) for future tracking. Check out a photo that I got of “the runt.” Enjoy!
They were incubated for 38 days, which is slightly more than the average of 35 days in NJ.
The first two eggs hatched on May 29th, and the third on June 1.
5-7 days old. Sleepy…
Feeding time is non-stop with ospreys!
Downy and body feathers start to emerge at 14 days old.
Today marks 21 days old (for the oldest two young). They’re now very active in the nest and like to check out all the cool nesting material mom & dad used in the nest.
The osprey pair at our Osprey Cam nest has been “decorating” their nest with plastic marine debris. They’re turning out to be hoarders of plastic mesh bags. So far they’ve collected three to use as nesting material. How will this play out? We can’t say for sure but are closely monitoring with the Osprey Cam.
The ospreys returned and so did the marine debris.
This morning a pair of peregrine falcons have been hanging on the osprey cam nest at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. First a female was perched on the nest, then she flew off a couple times, only to circle around and land on the nest again. Then a male landed on the platform and was seen calling out, most likely to the female. We’re not sure if they are a breeding pair or not. The female only had a silver federal band on her right leg and the male has a black federal band (which means he’s a Jersey bird) and a black/green auxiliary band on his left leg. It is unreadable since it’s pretty covered in dirt/mud. By the looks of him it looks like he just finished breakfast…
