looduskalender.ee

14.20
Piret returned...

Madis came back and they mated...

14.21
Madis left...

19:30 Madis is on the nest.Not sitting,preening.
I see from all of Mutikluti's reports that Madis is stepping up his fatherly duties.
Bringing fish and nest materials,taking his turn (when Piret will allow it) to sit on the egg.
19:34 He is still standing looking around him,preening.
19:38 Madis standing.!
19:56 Madis has at last turned his attention to the nest. Turnig the egg,arranging the nestbowl.
He is constantly looking around him.
19;59 At last Madis decided to sit on the egg.
( I have printed some pics to try to differentiate these two.. )

Madis has more white on the head.
Piret has more brown on her breast.
(anyone, anymore observations ? )

I saw this mating earlier today ( but it was after 1 AM my time and I fell asleep before posting!) I am repeating it here because of the tender moment I saw after it ended.




osprey_Estonia_5-8-2012 1.17.38 AM_17 by aurospio, on Flickr

19:54


20:00
Madis was preening, then sat on the egg.

I could hear wings fluttering.

Then Madis flew off and Piret landed on the nest. Madis cam back and they mated - chirping all the while! Madis flew off right away.

20:16





osprey_Estonia_5-8-2012 1.17.04 PM_25 by aurospio, on Flickr

Am I mistaken about the osprey here a while ago.
About 20:20 a male flew in,mated and flew away.
SO,
20:25 Piret is on the nest.

Nancy,thank you for showing us those tender moments.

You are Right!

20:24 Piret on the nest

osprey_Estonia_5-8-2012 1.24.50 PM_11 by aurospio, on Flickr

May 9

Some pictures from Pontu!

4:27 Piret and Egg


4:29 Madis and Piret



4:33 Piret has gone off the nest and leaves Madis to guard Egg

2012-05-09-04-33 by aurospio, on Flickr

5:35 Madis stands up and prepares to leave


5:38 Egg is home alone


5:38 (a few seconds later) Piret arrives home


5:53 Piret has been incubating Egg, but she must be very tired - her eyes close and her head drops down - then she snaps back up again. She must be a bit warm - look at how she is holding her feathers off her back.




osprey_Estonia_5-8-2012 10.53.08 PM_10 by aurospio, on Flickr

6:50 from Pontu. Madis arrives and Piret takes a break

7:01 Madis and Egg


7:11 Madis decides to inspect Egg



osprey_Estonia_5-9-2012 12.11.48 AM_08 by aurospio, on Flickr

10.07
Madis was on nest, flew of and Piret arrived. Madis returned for a mating and went then off

new nestmaterial is brought to nest in the morning, bark visible in the right side of nest and a piece of what must be plastic just in front

I do not like the plastic and the bird seems sooo dark. Maybe it is the lighting at this time of day

Yes because I looked back and it seems more normal now.

Mrs O is fighting against falling asleep in the sunny morning. a willow warbler sings a lullaby to her.
it seems that the lower eyelid goes up when the bird closes her eye and the upper stays where it is. (ours go the other way round).

this kind of sleeping is called "ice-fishing" in Finnish, because the movement of the head is similar to what is done in ice-fishing: the rod with the line and bate in the end are lowered slooowly... and suddenly pulled up. then lowered again slooowly... and so on.


fish hawk and fish eagle sound quite reasonable names for this corgeous bird. for some reason the name in Finnish is kalasääski where kala = fish and sääski = mosquito! i have no idea why the name is such.
another name for it in Finnish is sääksi (which only means the name of this bird; note the order of s and k)

Hi Macdoum, you asked for differences between male and female osprey. I tried to explain the differences in the tails, but found a picture that says it all.

Male right and female left



Male more rounded ends, female more straight at the end, and differences in colour also, but that depends on the light.

14.48

since I came online again, ½ an hour ago, nest has been empty, no parent, but sounds from above have been heard, so somebody may be at home after all.

14.51 and just now a parent came from above, Piret, and some secons later Madis came but left in a hurry again

and now I have to leave

Macdoum, I saw something else: the white under the eye.
With the female it goes until halfway the eyecorner; with the male it ends sooner. I can not find the right words so I shall try to make a picture of it.



Female left, male at the right.