The Raven starts this years second round in our osprey banding project. The helicopter, the raven, was the second step in monitoring the ospreys in the New London area. The first step is done by ground observation starting at the end of March and going though October. Each year my friend, Tammie Schmidt and I spent hours siting and observing the birds to make sure they are ok and also to watch them progress to about 4-4-1/2 weeks of age when we can band the chicks from the nest. This year we watched 6 nests with adults and eggs. Of those six sites only 3 hatched out young birds. This was not a good year for the ospreys in our area. But below is the story of those three nests. It takes a lot of caring people to make a project like this work. Take the time to read about the people that made this years osprey banding come the full circle.
***UPDATE***
The back up group banded two chicks at the Larson Farm nest on Sunday July 20, 2008. We went in by boat and canoes. The back up group is, Don Baumgartner, Chuck Petters, Mike Lawton and Bryan Lockman.
Thanks guys.................
All photos copyright, Fisher, Verhagen and Miller
The Raven
On the way to the first nest site.
The park site from the air.
Park site
The Fifth ward nest site
Closer of Fifth ward
Flying the Wolf River helicopter style
The Larson Farm site
Pair on site
Larson Farm
New London sturgeon trail
Say goodby to the Raven for another year
Dan Verhagen the climber from Great Lakes Line Builders
Guests watching for the start of the banding.
Up to the nest.
Equipment
Mike and Abe Young
The mother is not happy
Banded mother
Osprey down from the nest.
Guests
Interested guests
Osprey and guests
Don Baumgartner shows the crowd the band he will be putting on the bird
Banding the chick
Brit Roberts
American Transmission t-shirts
One last look
One infertile egg
Close up of osprey egg
Back in the nest
The team
Second nest site in the Fifth Ward
Chick on top on the world
Chick number one
dave at fifth ward.jpg
Chick number three
Back to the nest
Photo of the day
Checking out the last nest site.
Larson Farm chicks
One boat, two canoes a Saturn and.......................................
Great photojournalism! Maybe we will have better luck next year with these nests. I did not miss the mosquito infested fifth ward nest this year though!!