Things that happen in nature

Screenshots from Sääksilive Osprey nests.

Nest #3 this morning, empty. In one more stroke of bad luck at this nest, we lost the only chick of the season last night to an eagle-owl. It's sad to see the clutch fail and the chick's life be cut short after already overcoming so many difficulties, but it is nesting season for the owls, too, so this is one side of a raptor parent finding food for its young, this time another raptor's young.

You were a joy to follow and cheer on for the weeks we had you around, little one, I hope your next life is kinder to you.

The other two nests' chicks meanwhile are growing and approaching their fledging. E1 and E2 at nest #1 also have names now: older sister E1 is Lumme (waterlily), and little brother E2 is Utu (mist). Utu turned 4 weeks old yesterday.

Nuppu and her chicks at nest #4. N2, N3, N1 l-r in the first screenshot, 2 and 3 have switched places in the second. The chicks at this nest won't have names other than their band IDs, it seems, but I'm used to calling them by their hatching order codes, so I think I'll stick with those. With N2's ID being USU, N3's UPU, and nest #1's Utu's ID being URU, we also have quite a few "U[consonant]U" names and codes to keep track of, so I feel this might be less confusing.

N2 turned 6 weeks old today, and N1 yesterday.