Osprey Tales

Baby’s in the spotlight. See how she holds her head with pride. When she steps into the limelight, you can feel the love in her heart begin to rise.

• Eyes are open
• Down-covered
• Weak in movements, but can beg.

Chicks are brooded almost continually (1–14 days old) and fed small bits of fish by female parent.

Brooding is intermittent thereafter, up to about 4 wk of age, as necessary (e.g., rain, wind).

In hot sun, young 3–4 wk old are often shaded (not brooded) by female parent.

An inescapable question.

• The Doctor has some ideas but he really has no answer.

• We know the egg was fertile.

• We know Harriett cared for the egg well. She is an experienced mother.

• The weather has been excessively wet this spring. Excessive humidity is a possible cause. Perhaps there was something wrong with the embryo and it died after development started.

• I don’t even think Harriett knows.

• No further harping on this subject.

It’s time to raise baby!

But, Hey! “————————-“.

What is going on Harriett?

Day one

The fully developed embryo breaks open the shell when it is time.

Since the beak and the claws are not fully developed, birds have an “egg tooth.”

In birds, the process of breaking open the eggshell is referred to as pipping.

When a chick becomes too large to absorb oxygen through the pores of its eggshell, it uses its egg tooth to peck a hole in the air sac located at the flat end of the egg. This sac provides a few hours’ worth of air, during which the chick breaks through the eggshell to the outside. The egg tooth falls off several days after hatching