Hello everyone and sorry for the gap in updates, but if you have been watching the webcam, you know as well as anyone that Sunny and Stormy are thriving - growing fast and well on their way to fledging. They are now just about a month old each (+/- a day or so), and are moving around the nest a lot, essentially trampling it down. Annie is holding down the fort as usual and Squam is delivering plenty of fresh fish. The photo shows everyone at home, either on the nest or side perch (Squam).
And the occasional stick or other nesting material is still being delivered as well to spruce up the place! In fact, they keep building up the nest perimeter to make it safer for the chicks - so they don't accidentally fall out! So don't be surprised to observed continued nest maintenance. there is also some hot humid weather ahead this week, which is tough on them and the adults. Annie will spend a lot of time trying to shade Sunny and Stormy to help them stay a little bit cooler.
Sunny and Stormy will continue to grow and soon start to sprout even more flight feathers on their winds. In 2-3 weeks time they will really resemble mini Osprey and may even start flapping their wings. What age do they fledge? Generally somewhere in the 50-60 day time frame, so they have weeks to go before liftoff. At that point Annie may very well depart herself, at least from the nest. Squam and Sunny and Stormy will stay around as the fledglings learn to become fully independent by developing their own hunting skills. Squam will keep feeding them until then. But you might just see him drop a live fish in the nest and let the fledglings learn to deal with that. All part of the learning process.
So expect to see significant growth and change in Sunny and Stormy in the 3-4 weeks ahead. At some point we plan to go out to the nest and band them but not for a few weeks at least.
Enjoy watching and I'll blog again soon.