It has been a bit since my last blog, mostly because it has been business as usual for Annie, Squam, Kate and Ed. The chicks are still pre-fledglings and are now about 40+ days old. The are starting some wing flapping to build up their flight muscles and will likely be fledged in 2-3 weeks or less.
Today I went out to band Kate and Ed with Sean Riley who is a biologist for the MA Dept of Conservation and Recreation. In addition to the aluminum band I placed on each chick's right leg, Sean placed a yellow PVC plastic auxiliary color band on each chick's left leg. These color bands are used to enable individual field ID, because as you will see, if the band is visible, the letter/number combination is readable, whereas the aluminum bands can only be read in most instances by having the bird in the hand. Sean has color banded dozens of Osprey chicks in recent years and this year had a pair of siblings fledged in East Boston in 2023 return together to the Mystic River area. Very interesting since most of us believe that siblings do not remain together.
Around the county, many Osprey chicks are fledging. Yesterday we banded 13 chicks in Ipswich and Rowley, and several others flew off the nest before we could capture them for banding. We will do more banding in the coming 7-10 days and hope to band 40-50 chicks in total from the Merrimack River to the Saugus River.