Brewster, MA
It's a mystery. The ospreycam set up on the osprey nest on the marsh behind the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History captures quite a bit of information. It's amazing to watch the progression of their breeding season captured in this (not so private for the birds) streaming video, that has become such a popular medium to observe science. Do the birds mind? I don't know. It's not like they're aware that they are basically living in The Truman Show...
a-la bird...weirdo scientific voyeurism... anyway. All was going well until May 27th. See the photo of the dry erase chart below. This morning, when we checked on them via the camera feed, both eggs & chick had vanished. What happened? Raccoon? Fisher? I had to contact my bird nerd mentor Peter Trull for his take on the situation. He thought perhaps Great Horned Owl or Crows... I vividly remember watching in a bit of horror, Blue Jays attacking a Cedar Waxwing nest in the past at Scorton Creek in Sandwich. I texted him that moment... I will never forget his reply: In nature..."Everbody eats everybody". Sigh... as a naturalist, I admit, I am the one who changes the channel when viewing a documentary about the African savannah when the cheetah catches the antelope. I know it happens. I also know, I don't want to watch. I'm just overly sensitive I guess... because I LOVE cheetahs & I love predators great and small, but I also love the antelopes and the prey. In THIS case happened TO the predators. Life goes on. We will have to watch to find out the next phase of this ornithological & natural mystery. The good news, the Osprey have been observed mating, and mating again...
(double click photos to enlarge)
Happy Birding!
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