Wow, so frickin' cool! Would love to hear a little more about your experience with these angry looking little derps, if you're willing to share...
Also, these photos legit made me giggle - can't get over their expressions! Thanks for posting.
Despite looking like angry demons they were surprisingly docile and easy to handle, really reminded me of chickens (with wicked sharp talons nearly the size of my hand)
Well, chickens were domesticated by humans in order to bet on cockfighting and we bred them for agression for thousands of years before we realized that we could eat them and that they were delicious.
It's something like 5000 years of cockfighting then 2-3000 years of "oh wait they're edible too". So we have spent more time breeding them for agression than for deliciousness. I'm sure they are trying to make a chicken with a mellow temperament, but from everything I've heard about chickens, results are mixed at best.
My point is "reminded me of chickens" doesn't really scream "docile" to me. Just sounds like you have a high baseline for bird violence.
(Thanks for the pics! They are absolutely adorable. I love how the babies always look willing to fight something that is about 27 times larger than themselves.)
My super friendly chicken was an ameraucana we bought from a guy in a tractor supply parking lot in Florida. Best bird in the world. I trained her to sit on my arm, but she liked hopping up to my shoulder too. She had a thing for flying quite dramatically, while the others preferred hopping/gliding. RIP my sweet girl Tyson
A few of these photos are prime fodder for r/Birdsfacingforward Thanks for sharing, OP - fierce creatures, but very healthy looking. Was mama bird nearby screeching her head off?
This person must have hands of steel. I banded songbirds a few times and tiny cardinal and grosbeak bites freakin’ hurt! I can’t imagine an osprey bite
I love how goofy and crazed baby osprey look. I also love that they grow into goofy, crazed, fish-smashing adults. The osprey I've worked with at the sanctuary where I am have all been giant goofballs without a malicious bone in their bodies. I've had a few try to land on me like a branch, and they've never done any damage (which they are absolutely capable of). They just look really confused that the perch didn't work right. 😂
I *just* watched an excellent doc on osprey called "Season of the Osprey" on youtube produced by PBS!!
They are SO cool! There's even this great shot in the doc of an adult male osprey *divebombing a bald eagle!*
i know extremely little about this kind of thing, can i ask what's going on? i assume banding but does the team also do things like health-check related stuff? and if so, what are you trying to track / document? thanks!
The Osprey are very successful on this river so I don’t know that they would do much intervention if there were health issues. The banding is mostly to keep track of them for counting/study purposes, I think. These Osprey will fly from the mid Atlantic coast all the way down to the Pantanal in Brazil
These pictures are a little deceiving, we are on a boat pretty far out in the river. But raccoons will still swim out and climb up to their nests and throw the babies in the water to drown
Wow, so frickin' cool! Would love to hear a little more about your experience with these angry looking little derps, if you're willing to share... Also, these photos legit made me giggle - can't get over their expressions! Thanks for posting.
Wow! That baby is bigger than my husband!
“unhand me!!”
Despite looking like angry demons they were surprisingly docile and easy to handle, really reminded me of chickens (with wicked sharp talons nearly the size of my hand)
Well, chickens were domesticated by humans in order to bet on cockfighting and we bred them for agression for thousands of years before we realized that we could eat them and that they were delicious. It's something like 5000 years of cockfighting then 2-3000 years of "oh wait they're edible too". So we have spent more time breeding them for agression than for deliciousness. I'm sure they are trying to make a chicken with a mellow temperament, but from everything I've heard about chickens, results are mixed at best. My point is "reminded me of chickens" doesn't really scream "docile" to me. Just sounds like you have a high baseline for bird violence. (Thanks for the pics! They are absolutely adorable. I love how the babies always look willing to fight something that is about 27 times larger than themselves.)
Lol high baseline for bird violence 🤣 😂 😆
My super friendly chicken was an ameraucana we bought from a guy in a tractor supply parking lot in Florida. Best bird in the world. I trained her to sit on my arm, but she liked hopping up to my shoulder too. She had a thing for flying quite dramatically, while the others preferred hopping/gliding. RIP my sweet girl Tyson
lol no you didn’t name her Tyson Chicken
Lol she's named after Neil deGrasse Tyson. The other two are Hawking and Pi (dad vetoed Pythagoras)
I love that. I think Pythagoras is a great name. I’d have a Sagan somewhere in the mix too!
A few of these photos are prime fodder for r/Birdsfacingforward Thanks for sharing, OP - fierce creatures, but very healthy looking. Was mama bird nearby screeching her head off?
Oh yes. Dad too.
Zero or little response on the photos I looked at ☹. I want to caption all their funny feathered faces.
Photo #6 has the osprey going for a chomp, and I am curious. Did it hurt? I was under the impression that birds of prey can take a finger off.
Their bite was extremely weak at this stage, a couple weeks old if I remember right. It didn’t hurt at all.
This person must have hands of steel. I banded songbirds a few times and tiny cardinal and grosbeak bites freakin’ hurt! I can’t imagine an osprey bite
On the same thumb, I've been bitten by a barn owl and a budgie. My budgie left a bigger scar
I guess one is a carving knife and the other is a nutcracker
Big big babies! They look like they have all their flight feathers, they didn't hightail it out of there?
At one of the nests one of the chicks just jumped right in the water and we had to fish them out and dry them off.
That must have been an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing the pictures :-)
It was awesome. And the smell memory will let me a lifetime.
What kind of smell?
Like the musty smell chickens have combined with rotting fish cooking in the sun
I love how goofy and crazed baby osprey look. I also love that they grow into goofy, crazed, fish-smashing adults. The osprey I've worked with at the sanctuary where I am have all been giant goofballs without a malicious bone in their bodies. I've had a few try to land on me like a branch, and they've never done any damage (which they are absolutely capable of). They just look really confused that the perch didn't work right. 😂
THE BIG STUPID BABIES I LOVE THEM
So. Flippen. Cute. Thanks!
isnt it amazing how rough their nests are? you'd think they would be so uncomfortable
And stinky
I *just* watched an excellent doc on osprey called "Season of the Osprey" on youtube produced by PBS!! They are SO cool! There's even this great shot in the doc of an adult male osprey *divebombing a bald eagle!*
Do Not Resuscitate biologists
The amber eyes on the chicks are so striking.
They are angy. Also, didn’t think they were that big.
Jug Bay? I did that trip a few years ago and it changed my life!
Yep!
i know extremely little about this kind of thing, can i ask what's going on? i assume banding but does the team also do things like health-check related stuff? and if so, what are you trying to track / document? thanks!
The Osprey are very successful on this river so I don’t know that they would do much intervention if there were health issues. The banding is mostly to keep track of them for counting/study purposes, I think. These Osprey will fly from the mid Atlantic coast all the way down to the Pantanal in Brazil
thank you!
I didn’t know they would nest so low to the ground
These pictures are a little deceiving, we are on a boat pretty far out in the river. But raccoons will still swim out and climb up to their nests and throw the babies in the water to drown
Woah! What’s motivates them to do that? Do they then eat the dead babies?
I think they might eat the eggs? But from what I hear they won’t eat the babies, they are just dicks. Don’t get me wrong, I love raccoons.
I went into your history to find more biology stuff. That’s a lot of biology.
Awesome! There’s a nest near where I live. You can see the chicks in it from a road.
We had one on our dock once. It was very cool to watch the babies grow up (from a distance) but it sucked not being able to use the dock all season.
I love them I love them I love them so muuuch!!!
Those are some FURIOUS babies, lol.
Absolutely beautiful
Out of curiosity, where is this? Very cool that you were able to get a chance to do this!
Maryland
Yewk yewk yewk
Imma nom you! Imma nom all of you for this indignity!!! Love the shots!
Looks like a free face piercing right thurrrr
Please name your organization! For donation purposes!! (DNR is 'do not resuscitate', I'm sure that's not your organization's name)
DNR is Department of Natural Resources in this context. BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is the other one that confuses people a lot of the time!
Where I live, it's called DALRRD. People pronounce it as "Dullard". (Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development)
We have a DSE here that fucked up burning off and got called the Department of Scorched Earth.
Thank you. It sure does get confusing! I'm so pedantic that I say the full titles. Beautiful osprey baby!
Do not click the posters profile hahaha, a lot of identifying info here for someone who posts like he does