It is a real baby boom among the ospreys in the Biesbosch: three osprey chicks populate the nest, on Tuesday afternoon the third brother or sister crawled out. That was unexpected, says the enthusiastic forester Harm Blom: “It is much faster than expected. And all three eggs have hatched, that is really not obvious.”
The webcam showed live on Tuesday afternoon that the third egg of the breeding ospreys in the Biesbosch had unexpectedly hatched, says the forester. “Just before ‘the’ moment there was already an app that the third egg had broken in two.”
The osprey nest is very closely watched by the many fans, says Louis van Oort of Beleefdelente. “If people see something special, we are immediately tipped off at what time that special event took place. We then make a separate video of that and put it on our website.”
“Within the hour the fry was fed fish.”
Forest ranger Harm talks about the brand new triplets as a proud father: “All three are beautiful to see. You also see that they still have trouble holding their heads up, the neck muscles still have to develop.”
But the boy is fine. “Within an hour, the third chick was also fed fish,” says Blom. “Because all three have crawled out of the egg in a short time, all three are also about the same size, there is not a chick that lags behind the rest.” Louis van Oort also confirms that hunger is enormous. “The most recent tip we got from a viewer was that a really big fish had been landed.”
“That’s how we learned more about nest building.”
The Ospreys and ‘their’ webcam are very successful for the second year, but it is much more than a fun internet project. “We also learn from it scientifically,” says Harm Blom. “In this way we learned more about nest building. Together with a group of students, we are also investigating the effects of human movements in the vicinity of such a nest. And last year we found out through the webcam project that young ospreys often stay in the vicinity of their nest longer than we thought, which may mean that the breeding dormancy in the area also needs to be extended.”
The website of the Vogelbescherming, where the Biesbosch ospreys can be followed live, has already attracted 850,000 unique visitors since the start of the breeding season. “The osprey is in the top 10 of the most popular species,” says Louis van Oort. “I expect, especially now that the three chicks have hatched, a significant increase in the osprey viewing figures.”
“Within the hour, the third chick was also fed fish.”
You would almost forget, but these ‘famous’ ospreys are not the only ones of their kind in the Biesbosch. “There are now three breeding pairs,” says Blom. “Next week we will make an inventory of whether there are also youngsters among those other couples. But we will do that on the basis of traces in the vicinity of his nest, because we only have one nest that can be followed 24/7.”
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