The Saga Continues

The soap opera of the Osprey platform continues. The female osprey has sat above the platform on a nearby tree snag for a few days and then recently she sat on the nest previously used by our geese for several hours while looking around the river from her perch as if reminiscing about last year when she had raised her family of two.   In the afternoons her mate joins her and they sit and daydream.

Yesterday morning while I was making  coffee I heard a large amount of honking from geese and shrilling cries from the osprey.  I went to the window to see an osprey sitting on the platform nest and two Canadian  geese below in the water swimming around. They argued back and forth for some time and then it got quiet.  The osprey flew away and after ten minutes one of the geese flew up to the platform.  In a short time the female osprey returned and dive bombed the goose twice before the goose surrendered and flew off the nest back into the water.

The osprey took the place of the female goose and then called angrily to the two Canadian geese in the water.   Eventually she flew down to the two geese and dive bombed them relentlessly until they swam away from the area.

In the afternoon her mate joined her again and this time I saw them mating.  They are  4 to 5 weeks late in the normal osprey season!  Today she sits calmly most of the time on the nest, perhaps waiting for an egg arrival??   She leaves to catch a fish, eats it somewhere,  and then returns these days.

With regard to the geese we have seen two sets of parents with 4  goslings each swimming up and down the river in mornings and evenings.  The goslings are easily three  times the size of the ones we had on our  nest.  One of these families may or may not be the original  family from our platform having lost two babies.  This place is certainly busy and I am curiously waiting to see if the osprey have a family and if the family fledges  in time for early fall.