Osprey Tales

Harriett’s second egg hatched this morning at 5:43 AM.

This morning she is quiet and comfortably confident.  She has Ozzie bringing in fish by the bucket load. Ozzie is happy and proud to oblige.

The Doctor has never seen them so happy.

A picture truly is worth 1000 words.

Harriett’s first egg hatched today at 3:46 PM.  Most of the hatching took place beneath Harriett’s brooding pouch. She seemed reluctant to let the world know what was happening. It caused a lot of excitement in the Doctor’s office; the office staff and patients all watched.

Ozzie has already brought them a bluefish. It looks like he ate the head off and is giving the rest to Harriett.

Harriett saved the tail of the fish to have as a snack later .

Hello, Mary Asbell’s class.  Hello, Mister Alex Glass’s class.  Hello, Beaufort Elementary school.  Hello children and grandchildren of the faithful readers.  And hello to the bridge world, who share the concept of age and time as being existential.

It’s time to think of baby names.  Last year Mrs. Asbell’s kindergarten class named Tweedy.  The year before, bridge player extraordinaire, who shall remain anonymous, named Riki.

I’m not asking for free advice. I’m just trying to have a little fun.  Here are some really cool facts about Osprey which I offer for your efforts.

Cool Facts About Ospreys

Ospreys are one of the most common and well-known birds of prey in the world. They are cool, too! Here are some fun, interesting and cool facts about Ospreys.

• Ospreys are found on every continent except Antarctica. They breed on all continents except Antarctica and South America.
• Ospreys eat a diet which consists almost exclusively of fish. This earned them the nickname “sea hawk.”
• Ospreys hunt fish by hovering over water and then diving feet first to capture prey in their powerful talons.
• An Osprey’s outer toe is reversible, which means they can carry prey (slippery fish) with two toes in front and two toes behind.
• While flying away with the freshly-caught prey, an Osprey will manipulate the fish so that it is parallel to the bird’s body, and thus aerodynamic.
• The oldest known North American Osprey lived to be 25 years old.
• During the mid-20th century, North American Osprey populations suffered great losses (along with other birds of prey) due to widespread use of the pesticide DDT. After DDT and other contaminants were banned, the Osprey recovered fairly quickly.
• Ospreys make large nests on the top of dead or live trees. They will also readily use nest platforms or other man-made structures like utility poles.

Now, name the birds!

Unlike most birds, osprey will continue to brood (keep warm) their chicks even after they are born. Often they will brood their hatchlings until the last egg has hatched.

Like all diurnal birds of prey, osprey hatchlings emerge as “semi-precocial” young.

Down covers their bodies.

Down covers their bodies and their eyes open hours after hatching.  
They will actively take food with their bills.

May 31                 Gestation day # 36

June 1                   Gestation day # 37

June 2 (Tuesday)                   Gestation day # 38

June 3 (Wednesday)             Gestation day # 39

June 4 (Thursday)                 Gestation day # 40

June 5 (Friday)                       Gestation day # 41

June 6 (Saturday)                  Gestation day # 42

June 7                   Gestation day # 43

June 8                   Gestation day # 44

Who remembers the gestation period of the Osprey egg? (34 to 42 days)

Who remembers if all 3 of Harriett’s eggs will hatch at once or one at a time days apart? (Approximately 2 days apart)

Who remembers the disadvantage of the 3^rd born? Who remembers the chances of a new born Osprey reaching one year of life?  (Depends on the food supply and strength of 3rd born)

Who remembers the perils a new Osprey chick must face?  (“Did you say fly to South America?”)

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“Are you ready for this?” Asked Harriet.

“Am I ready! You know I’m ready. The question is, are you ready?”

“Of course I’m ready,” replied Harriett without umbrage. Have I not done this twice before?”

“Yeah, sure, but that was with a singleton and twins. Do you think you can handle triplets?”

Harriet tried to disregard Ozzie’s imprudent remarks.

“You just keep the predators away and keep the fish coming,” she said.

Then she gave him a little ego boost.

“Who is the best fisherman on the East Coast and probably of all North America?” She offered with a twitch of her tail feathers.

Ozzie knew who she was talking about. It was he of course.  And if you don’t believe it, just take a look at some of the upcoming photographs and videos.

 Ozzie the Great Fisherman

Songbirds and most seabirds

Songbirds and most seabirds have altricial young, meaning that the newly hatched birds are blind, featherless, and helpless. Immediately after hatching, altricial birds can do little more than open their mouths to beg for food. They remain in the nest where the parents can feed and protect them while they continue to develop. For the first week of life, most altricial birds cannot control their own body temperature and must be constantly brooded (kept warm) by their parents. By the end of the first week, their eyes are usually open and their feathers are beginning to emerge. During this period, nestlings can experience remarkable growth by doubling their body weight several times!

Altricial young

Precocial species, such as ducks and many shorebirds, are born fully feathered, mobile, and with eyes open. Incubation periods are longer for precocial birds than altricial birds, allowing for increased embryonic development in the egg, and therefore they have relatively advanced motor and sensory functions at hatching.

“Quack, quack!” Said Mama Duck.”

“Quack, quack! Yourself,” mimicked Harriett sardonically.

“Wow!” Exclaimed Ozzie.

“Who do you think showed up today?”

The elusive Tricolored Egret passed through on her way north.  “How are you, Tricolored Egret,” asked Ozzie with baited breath.

Tricolored Egret was in no mood to chat. She was hungry. She found this nice place beneath the Taj Mahal where plenty of mature secondary consumers thought they were safe. She gobbled them up one by one.

Ozzie was distracted.

“Wow!” Thought Ozzie. “Take a look at those legs!”.

    
“That a girl,” encouraged Ozzie. “Eat them up.”

Ozzie thought the Tricolored Egret was attractive. Perhaps just a little more than attractive. Ozzie looked at Tri Colored Egret. It made him take a deep breath and his brain went into a zone in which he usually kept closed. “Wow!” He thought. Tricolored Egret looks good.

Ozzie never suspected Harriett could read his thoughts.

“Phooy,” thought Harriett. “It’s just his hormones talking.”

And she paid it no mind.

The Doctor thought this was funny.

The H. sapien that lives with the Doctor in his giant nest gave him “the look.”  No words ventured the audible realm.

Behind the Doctor’s giant nest that sits on the bank of the North River, the secondary consumers find an abundance of primary consumers from which they can consume the sun’s energy.

Some of the more familiar secondary consumers are the pin fish, speckled trout, juvenile blue fish, croaker, flounder, gray trout, jumping mullet, hog fish, sheepshead, and more.

       
“These are the consumers I like to consume,” said Harriett. “Speckled trout is my favorite.”

Detritus is where the energy lies.  It has been captured from the sun.  Energy hungry animals can’t wait to take a bite.

Meiofauna are microscopic invertebrates that live between sediment grains and feed on detritus, bacteria, and protozoans.  The term “meiofauna” loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping.

Filterfeeders 

Bivalves are mollusks. They possess two shells which hinge at one edge and can be closed tightly when threatened or out of the water. They are filter feeders gaining nourishment by filtering tiny organisms and digestible debris (detitus) from the water. Some are sedentary, attaching themselves to a substrate (oysters, mussels), some burrow and move around on the bottom (clams) and a few can swim (scallops).
                                                      
Mollusks are the largest marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms

Here are some more examples of North Carolina filter feeders:

Deposit feeders such as polychaetes (read worms), amphipods (read shrimp), and snails utilize a wide range of foods including decaying plant material, bacteria, protozoans, diatoms, fungi, and meiofauna.

One of the major primary consumers are the Polychaetes.

“Personally I don’t like them.  As a mater of fact just thinking about them gives me the creeps and kind of makes me sick.  But the wadding birds love them.  Gourmet dining, they say.”

“And just think,” said Harriett.

“All of this from sunshine and the marsh cord grass.”

“But what is even more amazing, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the food chain.”

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to comprehend why I should be at the top.”  This is one of the mysteries for the Doctor and me to discuss.”

As always, with love,

Harriett

Salt marshes are marshy because the soil is composed of deep mud and peat. Peat is made of decomposing plant matter that is often several feet thick.  The salt marsh life cycle may have been undisturbed for hundreds of years.

   
The soil of a salt marsh

Peat is waterlogged, root-filled, and very spongy. Because salt marshes are frequently submerged by the tides and contain a lot of decomposing plant material, oxygen levels in the peat can be extremely low. The growth of bacteria under condidions of low oxygen produce the wonderful aroma that is associated with marshes and mud flats.

                                          
Microorganisms of the salt marsh. Can you distinguish the bacteria form the fungi from the algae, protozoa?

Detritus
noun, de·tri·tus
1. any disintegrated material; debris.

In biology, detritus is dead particulate organic material.  Detritus is typically colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose the material.

 
See the primary consumer?

What’s next in the food chain?