(edited 430pm April 27)
Annie has produced a third egg, probably overnight or early this morning 4/27. See photo. I do not expect another egg but never say never, as four egg clutches do occur, just infrequently.
It is interesting that Annie laid egg #1 on 4/21, egg #2 on 4/24 and her 3rd egg today, 4/27, completing her clutch sooner than any year I can recall. Earlier is overall better - more time in the end for the fledglings to acclimate to life on the wing before migration! Not surprising that older pairs with more experience lay eggs earlier than younger pairs, at least most often.
Typically eggs are laid every other day but these are a bit more spread out. Using the well established 40 day incubation period for Osprey, we are probably looking to see the first egg hatch around 5/30 or 5/31. And if egg #3 takes all 40 days to incubate and hatch, that would be about 6/5 or 6/6. Often the timing of hatching does not go perfectly as planned, but it is a fair prediction that there will be some hatchlings in the nest the first week of June - hopefully 3 little feather balls!
A few notes from around the region. Osprey are still moving around and establishing themselves on nests. Our many nest monitors are doing an awesome job in the field, and submitting reports but some nest sites are just not settled yet. Osprey (1-2) are observed perched at some nest sites but it is a bit unclear if they are just resting or selecting as a nest site. I estimate there are about 90-95 nests with some activity (90% or more with fully committed pairs). May is always the month when things more or less settle down; we'll have a more accurate estimate in short order.
Unfortunately, a dead adult Osprey was observed on an active nest in Beverly last week and we went out by boat and recovered it. There were no visible injuries, so we are at a loss to explain it. Maybe injured some way in a fight with another Osprey, or Bald Eagle or gull? Maybe related to something it ingested? Very unlikely to be bird flu. If we learn anything more, I will share it here.