Kate and Ed remain steadfastly on the nest at Lobstaland. Here is my take on what is going on of late. I believe that Annie and Squam have left the nest and their two fledglings. Based on my review of archived photos and video, both Kate and Ed are successfully catching their own fish now, but still using the nest as home base. The attached photos show each of them with a fish. They are clearly hunting successfully on their own. They look healthy and strong and I believe gaining the skills they need to start on their first southward migration. I can't predict how long they will remain on the nest, but a guess would be for another week, maybe two weeks at the most.
Enjoy them while they remain. Annie and Squam have completed another successful season, and that is great news. Our plan is to leave the webcam running into October this year, so you may get to see other Osprey, or variety of other birds using the nest between now and then. Once we remove the camera, it will be time to start thinking about and planning for 2026. Can't wait.
Around the region, preliminary data shows a modest increase in nesting Osprey pairs, 91 (prelim total) in 2025 versus 90 in 2024. And somewhere between 110-120 fledglings, depending on final counts which are not available yet. I am not sure how to explain the 1 pair increase, except to say that 4-5 nests that were active in 2024 were not active in 2025, which is unusual. We still found a bunch of new nests, but in aggregate it was only 1 more new nest more than inactive nests from 2024.
That's it for now.