A parent comes in to visit and feed her, as the chick next door is doing wing exercises.
It's mom (lime-green-lime leg band).
Chicks in golden sunset light.
The chick next door moves a bit closer to Tiaki for the night.
No picture updates from nest #3 this time, as there are sad news. Yesterday evening the nest area experienced a severe thunderstorm, and in whatever way it managed to change the conditions in the nest, the hatchlings N1 and N3 didn't survive it.
Nuppu has been brooding N2 and has fed the chick this morning, and I can only wish for the best for her last remaining offspring and its young parents. Birds of prey aren't particularly sentimental creatures, so I don't think they are grieving the loss of the two chicks, though it probably is a confusing situation for them. I think that can be comforting to remember for us humans, who understandably find this turn of events saddening and are tempted to anthropomorphize and project our feelings onto the animals we're saddened over. There are certainly animals that can be observed to experience distress over loss of family members in a way that could be described as grief, but avian raptors aren't really social enough for that to be a thing with them, and that's really for the best, too, as not being social means they would have no one to rely on for support if losing a child was as devastating for them as it is for humans. Life will go on, in one way or another, and that's all they know.
Warning for viewing the nest for now that the two chicks' bodies are still in the nest. The parents will likely remove them eventually, or if not, they'll become part of the nest and get buried under the nest material. It's also not out of the question that they'll be treated as food, as many raptors would do, but since ospreys are piscivores, they may not. Whatever will happen is just how these animals do things, and we're here to observe, or to choose not to observe.
Nuppu has been brooding N2 and has fed the chick this morning, and I can only wish for the best for her last remaining offspring and its young parents. Birds of prey aren't particularly sentimental creatures, so I don't think they are grieving the loss of the two chicks, though it probably is a confusing situation for them. I think that can be comforting to remember for us humans, who understandably find this turn of events saddening and are tempted to anthropomorphize and project our feelings onto the animals we're saddened over. There are certainly animals that can be observed to experience distress over loss of family members in a way that could be described as grief, but avian raptors aren't really social enough for that to be a thing with them, and that's really for the best, too, as not being social means they would have no one to rely on for support if losing a child was as devastating for them as it is for humans. Life will go on, in one way or another, and that's all they know.
Warning for viewing the nest for now that the two chicks' bodies are still in the nest. The parents will likely remove them eventually, or if not, they'll become part of the nest and get buried under the nest material. It's also not out of the question that they'll be treated as food, as many raptors would do, but since ospreys are piscivores, they may not. Whatever will happen is just how these animals do things, and we're here to observe, or to choose not to observe.
3 comments:
I'm glad N3 survived. A bit confused and curious about how, but glad. I hope the parents have learned a lesson from this (whatever that might be, or if it can prevent further loss of chicks).
Seems to have been a combination of strong wind, rain, and general temperature drop, which the mother's wings couldn't sufficiently shield the chicks from. The surviving chick may have lucked out in where it was positioned under her so it didn't get the worst of it. Days old hatchings are extremely sensitive to temperature changes, and this was a bad timing for them to get caught in a sudden storm. Maybe if they had been older it would have been less dangerous.
The surviving chick is doing well, though, so hopefully the nest will still have a fledgling this year.
Hopefully. This just reminded me the "luck factor" in nature.
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