Happy Sunday morning. It is a breezy day in Gloucester as Annie and Squam tend to their 2 healthy looking chicks - the first one hatched on 5/31 and the second on 6/2. The photo shows them with their heads up, their masked faces looking up at Annie standing next to them.
The third egg has not hatched and at this point I am doubtful it will hatch. The first 2 eggs hatched almost exactly 40 days after being laid, but now it has been 41-42 days for egg #3. We won't give up hope quite yet but it appears the third egg may not be viable, which some will remember also happened in 2025.
The good news is the 2 chicks look very healthy and they are already growing at an impressive rate. As a reminder, Squam does all the hunting during the breeding season, so he is out there finding fish for the chicks, for Annie and for himself. Annie will barely leave the nest at all now, except maybe to fly over to the side perch sometimes to feed herself, during which time Squam will be on the nest with the chicks. It is typical for Squam to deliver a partially eaten fish to the nest - one he has probably eaten the head off. Annie may intermittently feed herself and the chicks, or some variation thereof. It could be a river or sea herring, a pogie, a small striped bass or a flounder. It is critical Squam stay strong and well fed, hence his partial consumption of most catches, but also it is safer for the chicks, especially when they are small, not to have Squam deliver a live, flopping fish in the nest that could injure a small chick.
We will keep a close eye on the nest this coming week, but if egg #3 doesn't hatch, we will remove it. And maybe also remove the stick that is directly across the view of the camera into the nest cup. Seems to happen almost every year.
Around the region, we are getting lots of reports from our volunteer nest monitors of nests that appear to have chicks in them, based on the behavior of the female. But even as recently as last week, a report came in of a pair trying to make a new nest in Rowley on a weather station out on the marsh. It can be challenging to know whether or not this is a new pair, or perhaps a pair that moved from an abandoned nest site. Soon enough I will look more closely at all the reports of active nests and create a timeline to help me get a clearer picture of nesting activity, but I am pretty confident that we have around 100 breeding pairs active in the region this year. Amazing!
Finally, Greenbelt is working with a talented videographer this season to create a short documentary film about the Osprey Program. It will feature lots of action footage of activities and Osprey behavior, interviews with staff, experts and volunteers, and much more. We are excited about it and will share it later in 2026 when it is completed.