Welcome to the 2018 Season At Hellgate Canyon Osprey Nest!
The nest is located in Missoula, Montana, on the Clark Fork River and and thank you HWF for featuring it on your web site along with a nest thread where we can post our observations, scaps and videos......giving us the opportunity to learn about these beautiful birds ..
Special thanks to Cal04 for bringing this cam to the attention of HWF and providing a history for this cam and it's sister cam at Dunrovin Ranch ..
This thread is for scaps, videos and observations of the Osprey..Please limit smileys to three per post....Thank You and Enjoy!
2017 was a very sad year for this nest....Iris laid 4 eggs and they all hatched ....DR. Eric Greene explained it best.
Hi everyone,
This has been an extremely traumatic couple of days, and it is a very sad day for all of us associated with the Montana Osprey Project.
All three of the remaining osprey chicks starved to death, with the biggest one dying this morning. The ultimate cause has been the difficult fishing conditions, with extremely high and muddy waters. Just as the rivers were starting to clear a bit, the strong rains of the last few days brought a lot more mud and silt into the rivers.
I am not sure what effect the extremely aggressive osprey intruder the last couple of days had on Louis' ability to fish. Osprey intruders are quite common at nests, and we see them every year. They generally fly close to the nest and often land on them too. But when they do, they tend to be very submissive, and are eventually shown the door. But the latest osprey intruder was surprisingly aggressive - diving on and hitting Louis right off the nest. I was concerned that Louis was injured by the attacks yesterday. I combed the bushes underneath the nest and along the river but did not see him. He did not return to the nest yesterday after he was hit. I do not know what to make of this aggressive behavior. Ospreys in general are quite sociable. I have studied them nesting in large colonies (with MANY osprey nests packed close together) and have never seen this sort of aggression before.
So we all had such high hopes for Iris and Louis this year, especially since this is the first time in three breeding seasons that chicks have hatched in this nest.
The lesson that I take away from this nest camera is an appreciation of the many challenges that wild animals must deal with in order to survive and successfully reproduce. Iris had spoiled us for so many years by being such a successful osprey mother, and we had perhaps taken success for granted.
RIP little chicks, Erick Greene
I like this by Judy B
Big hugs to all who have been watching and posting here - this is all so very, very hard.
Rest in peace, little ones - and I'm seeing four little beams of light shining on Iris and Louis as they recover begin to get ready for the season away and for next year.
Link to 2017
Weather Report
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/we ... a/missoula
Link to Facebook
Incubation Period for eggs. 35 - 42 days.
Chicks fledge between 53 and 60 days old....
Time Line..2018
Osprey Return ... Louis April 4 ,12:24pm / Iris April 6th, 5:03 pm
Eggs Laid..Egg# 1 April 27, 11:04am ..Video by Darlene ..... EGG # 2 April 30 ...Video with thanks to Cornell Lab Bird Cams Project .....EGG#3 May 3.. Video with thanks to Cornell Lab Bird Cams
Hatched ..June 4... Egg#1 38 days old .....viewtopic.php?p=63215#p63215.. ..... https://youtu.be/js37OYp40xE
Egg#2 ..June 5 ..36days old .....viewtopic.php?p=63835#p63835
https://youtu.be/N30CxS_olrM
Egg# 3 ..June 8, 36days old.. viewtopic.php?p=65601#p65601
https://youtu.be/PHwgNcNaW80
June 11...Sadly chick # 3 passed over the rainbow today at 3days old.. Cause of death.. Bad weather resulting in shortage of food..
June 25....C 2 passed over the rainbow at 20..ays old..... Cause of death.. Bad weather .. Sibling Rivalry and shortage of food
July4, 2018 7:13pm..... Two Parents..Two Fish ..Onechick......viewtopic.php?p=80175#p80175
Chick named .. July 12, Le'le....viewtopic.php?p=84033#p84033
July 13....
viewtopic.php?p=84523#p84523
Fledge ..L'el'e .August 5 at 6:58am....62 days old ..viewtopic.php?p=92998#p92998
Last seen .L'el'e Sept 2 .. 90 days old or Sept. 3 .. 91 days or 13 weeks old.
Sept 4.. DR Greene saw L'el'e , Iris and Louis up river.
Sept.10 .... Iris
Sept.14..Louis..