After monitoring Jamaica Bay, New York, for a couple of months with no signs of any chicks, they finally appeared yesterday. They must have been positioned at the bottom of the nest, which is fairly high on it's sides. The parents have been accumulating some long branches to help secure the nest. Those branches have been a hinderance for photography. They also have been accumulating plastic which makes for a messy photo. They have to do some better house (nest) cleaning- no clutter. The mom wasn't too happy for my visit either.

C & C welcome as always.

GENE

Mom on the nest watch.

1.
2.
3.

They look good to me - Paul

Mom doing Combat Air Patrol (CAP Mission)

4.
5.
6.

Coming in for a landing.

7.
8.
9.

Finally - the chicks!

10.
11.
12.

Very cool, #2 and #4 for me. You are getting great in-flights #10 is giving you some attitude, love their eye color at this stage, congrats on the chicks!

Karl

Sorry for breaking up your thread. I like number 9 the best. Must be the talons! - Paul

Nice IF's Gene good look at the younguns too

Tom

Your perseverance has paid of Gene!! Congrats on getting the chicks Good job on the IFs

Tim

Karl Witt wrote:
Very cool, #2 and #4 for me. You are getting great in-flights #10 is giving you some attitude, love their eye color at this stage, congrats on the chicks!

Karl

Thanks for the kind comments and the picks, Karl. I was worried that the Osprey pair didn't produce any chicks this year. I guess they stayed deep in the nest for the first couple of weeks. They started to exercise their wings, but from deep in the nest could only view the wing tips. Maybe they will move out further next week.

GENE

pinball_pw wrote:
Sorry for breaking up your thread. I like number 9 the best. Must be the talons! - Paul

Thanks for picking a favorite, Paul. I also like the landing series the best. Those talons are really intimidating. At low passes you get to wonder if they will take a swipe one day, even though I never heard of it happening.

GENE

Thomas Sanders wrote:
Nice IF's Gene good look at the younguns too

Tom

Thanks for viewing and the kind words, Tom. The chicks always steal the show!

GENE

Tim Kuhn wrote:
Your perseverance has paid of Gene!! Congrats on getting the chicks Good job on the IFs

Tim

Thanks for viewing and the encouragement, Tim. It was a real pleasure viewing the chicks for the first time this year.

GENE

Way to go Gene and glad you saw the young. Surprised they took so long to spot as they look good size. Do you have any photos of the nesting when the female was incubating? I use this method on each nest so I don't have to write anything down on paper but just check the photo info.Great way to keep a history on any kind of nest if you stay with it all the way.
Lou

Really kewl find Gene!!

Number 7 really stand out for me
I like how the body is mostly shadowed from the sun with some sun breaking through over the wing lighting up the eye I like that one

On my monitor looks like most of the whites are over exposed. They don't look bad enough that they aren't recoverable if taken in RAW. I just didn't know if you noticed that or not (Comment only meant to help)

Great shots and looking forward to more of the chicks flights

Ant

lbuscher wrote:
Way to go Gene and glad you saw the young. Surprised they took so long to spot as they look good size. Do you have any photos of the nesting when the female was incubating? I use this method on each nest so I don't have to write anything down on paper but just check the photo info.Great way to keep a history on any kind of nest if you stay with it all the way.
Lou

Thanks for viewing and your comments, Lou. I've viewed adult Osprey (no white tips on the feathers) on the nest prevously this year, but I couldn't tell if it was the female (couldn't view chest for "bib" or "necklace", or viewing was inconclusive) nesting. The Osprey in the nest in this posting, I believe were chicks since they had white tips on their feathers and their eye color was red/orange not the normal yellow of an adult Osprey's eyes. This was my first spotting of the chicks. I must admit that I didn't check the nests during the rainy period we had in June. I am posting possible nesting shots.

GENE

1. 4/17/09 (possible "necklace")

2. 5/13/09 (couldn't view chest)

3. 6/1/09 (couldn't view chest)

genemiller wrote:
lbuscher wrote:
Way to go Gene and glad you saw the young. Surprised they took so long to spot as they look good size. Do you have any photos of the nesting when the female was incubating? I use this method on each nest so I don't have to write anything down on paper but just check the photo info.Great way to keep a history on any kind of nest if you stay with it all the way.
Lou

Thanks for viewing and your comments, Lou. I've viewed adult Osprey (no white tips on the feathers) on the nest prevously this year, but I couldn't tell if it was the female (couldn't view chest for "bib" or "necklace", or viewing was inconclusive) nesting. The Osprey in the nest in this posting, I believe were chicks since they had white tips on their feathers and their eye color was red/orange not the normal yellow of an adult Osprey's eyes. This was my first spotting of the chicks. I must admit that I didn't check the nests during the rainy period we had in June. I am posting possible nesting shots.

GENE

1. 4/17/09 (possible "necklace")

2. 5/13/09 (couldn't view chest)

3. 6/1/09 (couldn't view chest)


4. 7/6/09 (no "necklace")

anthony whitmo wrote:
Really kewl find Gene!!

Number 7 really stand out for me
I like how the body is mostly shadowed from the sun with some sun breaking through over the wing lighting up the eye I like that one

On my monitor looks like most of the whites are over exposed. They don't look bad enough that they aren't recoverable if taken in RAW. I just didn't know if you noticed that or not (Comment only meant to help)

Great shots and looking forward to more of the chicks flights

Ant

Thanks for your kind words and picking a favorite, Anthony. I was actually trying to get the sun shining underneath the body. Last outing,11-12 noon, I had the sun above the Osprey and all the shots were underexposed producing dark Osprey. This time I was on station 9 AM hoping the sunlight woud illuminate the underside of the Osprey. It appears I wasn't early enough - the sun was illuminating only part of the body. Maybe next time I will try to be on station around 7 AM.

As per the "whites", I am shooting in JPEG. Is there any way to darken the "whites" without darkening the body also? I tried to shoot in RAW, and didn't have much success in handling the "whites". If I shoot in Raw, do I have to use layers to concentrate on the "whites" without disturbing the rest of the bird's body?

GENE

Very nice series Gene

Garen

Well Gene I would say the April one is the female (I see a necklace) and she is not down on eggs/egg yet but the look and the action in the nest I would think it to be the female. As for May I think she is down and June yes I am sure she is incubating and should be close to a hatch. I think your July one is also the female as the male is not to often found in the nest like this as his job is food but with all these raptors nothing is written in stone. The best way for the young and an adult is the eye color and the back plumage as they fill out.
I find the osprey very hard to photograph due to the nest sticks and in flight they always seem to come away dark due to the sky unless you get one in a bank and the sun hits the feathers. If you at about 100 feet you might try a Better Beamer but if the birds react to it than stop using it. If your going to watch this nest next year than document the arrival times when you first see them as that way you will have a good idea when to start making trips to the nest area the next year. I'm a bit lucky as many of the nests I watch are on private land and the people e- mail me when they show up. Other than that I have dates recorded of their about time of arrival at certain nests.It helps to tell when a hatch is due if you find them incubating early. Like the eagle give about 35 days per egg.
Lou

GAREN wrote:
Very nice series Gene

Garen

Thanks for viewing and the kind words, Garen.

GENE

Hi Gene,

This looks like nest on the side of Cross Bay Blvd. We did not see the chicks when we were there last weekend. The chicks should be taking flight in a few weeks and that will be a treat. Very nice photos.

Morris

Nice shots....

morris wrote:
Hi Gene,

This looks like nest on the side of Cross Bay Blvd. We did not see the chicks when we were there last weekend. The chicks should be taking flight in a few weeks and that will be a treat. Very nice photos.

Morris


Apparently, that's the only nest you can get close.

Easy pick Gene... #9.