Three chicks have successfully hatched and survived the first few days. Now the fun begins.  They are just leaving the bobblehead stage. There have been one or two Bob'em fights between Chicks 1 and 2. 

The chicks are eating well. They pop up their heads when hungry or when they know a fish is there. Rosie makes sure all three are fed. Then they topple into a food coma until the next feeding. Chick One has begun poking its head out and even venturing a bit beyond the nest bowl. 

Richie tries hard to be a good father and mate. But his actions often make human chatters laugh, as he appears awkward. He expertly brings fish to his family, even traveling all the way to San Pablo Reservoir to get a tasty trout. He also brings nesting materials. He is not bringing human objects to the nest much now, thanks to clean up efforts. Unfortunately, fishing line and ropes still lie around the shore. A yellow rope was in the nest but is now buried but a pink plastic twine presents more danger. Thankfully, the birds removed it from the nest bowl recently but it is still on the nest itself. Richie has also been brining large sticks, presumably to act as rails for the growing chicks. But one acted briefly as a cage, hiding the chicks from our view. It was moved around and gradually reduced in size and moved to the edge of the nest. 

May 14: The chicks grow quickly, as you can see on the calendar of growth Chicks #1 and#2 are already developing their second dark down (not all ospreys have this second growth, but ours do), which makes it easy to distinguish them from Chick #1. All three poke their heads up when a fish comes and eagerly open their beaks. Chick #1 (Tug) seems to be the most assertive. But Chick #3 (Clipper) makes sure it gets its share. They are also just beginning the bop 'em stage where they fight briefly but without harm (at this nest anyway). Chick #1 has ventured beyond the nest bowl. 

 Both Rosie and Richie are good parents. Rosie stay with the chicks at all times, only taking a brief break when Richie is there. At night, she is often alert, watching for any dangers. Richie is also nearby, ready to hurry to the nest to chase away any danger. Richie wants to babysit but isn't sure how, so he just stands there. But he provides for his family. Not only large sticks for crib rails but he faithfully brings fish up to 6 times a day, even flying to the reservoir for trout. (See Fish Matrix for more information on the fish or Archives September 2018). 

Richie and Rosie are kept busy bringing new sticks as nest railings, bringing fish and feeding the chicks. They are beginning to leave the chicks alone briefly but are always nearby in case of danger. This year, there have been more osprey intruders flying by. Rosie and Richie handily chase them away and there have been no untoward incidents on the nest. There are fun videos to watch on the sfbayospreys.org Youtube page of the sticks being flown in, often landing on Rosie or the chicks. They seem to take this in stride.Richie has been asking for some CK's, to tighten his relationship with Rosie.

Richie brings a stick.   May 17, 2021

In the early morning of June 5, the chicks were banded without fanfare. The cam went down and a few hours later, Tony\ gave word that they had been banded. The birds in the nest were surprisingly calm. Richie had brought a fish earlier. Tony\ left a fish in the nest when the crew was done and Rosie took it, flew away then returned with it and fed the chicks. Below are the accounts and information.

Tony\'s report on the banding:
​As mentioned in Robin’s post yesterday, banding of the three nestlings was carried out uneventfully yesterday. Teresa and the rest of the crack banding crew found all of the nestlings to be quite robust, and they were fairly calm upon return to the nest.
The weights indicated that the nestlings are all males. Here are the masses. I’ve assumed that the ages and weights are in the same order. Examining the wing chord is consistent with this assumption. That measurement, like others involving feather growth, is still in a step part of the growth curve.
This time Rosie came back to the nest pretty quickly. That was likely in part due to us getting out of site as quickly as possible, but maybe more so because Richmond showed up with a fish just as Ben and I were heading down from the crane. Lat year he showed up well before we were finished, so he took ended up consuming that fish. Rosie quickly flew to the nest just after Richmond, and grabbed the Largemouth Bass that I had left. Richmond fed them for a bit, then allowed the young to have it themselves. Eventually Rosie returned with the partially eaten bass and fed the young, and thigs continued as normal.

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As can been seen in the chart, it is assumed that the three chicks are males. This is based on their weights at their given age. Later confirmation would be a lack of chest speckles and, of course, mating behavior in the future. 

When the banders band the birds, they also weigh them and take other measurements. Tony\ takes the opportunity as well to clean up the nest of hazardous materials and to service the washer. Too many human objects were found in the nest, as usual, the most dangerous being a rope entangled with fishing line. 

Richie brought sticks as gifts to his mate and the first chick. One has to wonder about his placement of them. But Rosie takes it all in stride. 

Chick #3 hatched out on May 5 at 4:51 pm. The hatch was a bit hard to watch as a stick was in the way. But first viewers saw a pip, then Rosie carried away a shell fragment and then the chick was evident. It quickly entered the fray and has fended for itself in the midst of its two siblings.