2018 Nest Cam News
The camera was offline this year due to technical network issues. The nest was still active and produced three young.
April 26, 2018
The adult female osprey struggles to free her foot from a green plastic mesh bag while moving natural nesting material.
After losing the camera stream around April 13-14 we haven't had a chance to properly diagnose the reason for it to go down/offline. Today we finally got that chance and we have good and bad news. The bad news is that we did not fix the problem, so the camera will remain offline. The good news is that it is working and that the osprey pair are incubating three eggs (see above). After consulting with our camera supplier and Axis Communications support, we've determined that part of the system is corrupt and that problem lies out at the nest. Basically the cameras are not accepting the IP address that should be assigned to them and have "gone rogue" with a corrupt IP address that we cannot change.
With that said, we will be unable to do any more work to fix the problem since it seems to occurring out at the nest. With three eggs that are now being incubated, we can't go out to fix the problem. On the positive side, anyone who accesses the cameras via the local/corrupt IP addresses at Forsythe NWR can view the live feed, save photos, and will hopefully keep us all updated as to their progress. As you can see from the photo pulled from the camera above, they've brought in a good amount of plastic marine debris, including that mesh bag, which I watched the female struggle with as her talon got stuck in it.
We're sorry for this not-so-positive news, but if you've followed this camera with us over the years then you know that with technology that is installed in such a remote location that something is bound to fail at some point. It is a shame that it happened now, at the start of the nesting season, so we are going to propose to move the camera, all components, and the osprey platform closer to a nearby boardwalk where the cameras network equipment can be housed and away from the nest (camera will then be attached directly to the nest platform. Thank you all for tuned in and supporting this effort over the years! --Ben
April 10
Wow, time flies! Sorry for my lack of updates here. It's clear that things have been going on and the pair is back!! I have been busy with plenty of fieldwork (that is arguably much more important than writing here) to ensure many ospreys are returning to a safe and secure nest site... Trust me, it has kept myself and several dedicated volunteers busy! There are still platforms that are in need of repairs, but we are counting on our volunteers to help us help these ospreys.
Zoom+ Here you can see the light brown flecks on the interloper male. 
Zoom+ The old male returns.
As for this nest. The female, who looks the same as the beginning of this camera, returned on March 28 which is 8-9 days later than she did in 2015 & 2016. An interesting thing happened here where we had an interloping/new male show up a day later. We could tell he was new b/c of his markings on his breast. The old male lacks these markings. The interloper hung out on the nest for several days and caught fish, added nesting material, mated with the female, but never really seemed to connect with the female, who at times was begging like crazy for him to share the fish he caught. Instead, he just took naps... No doubt this osprey, was a young adult and not a part of a mated pair. Then around April 1 the old male returned and the interloper was gone.
Zoom+ Comparison of old (on left)/interloper male (right). The feather markings on their forehead can be used to help tell one from the other.
Now that the mated pair is back together, they have been very busy with sprucing up their nest. The earliest an egg has been laid here was on April 16 and latest on April 19, so I think it's a safe bet that an egg will be laid around that time. We will see the female stay closer to the nest and in the nest bowl, which they will line with spartina grasses, before laying. Join the conversation with us over on the interaction page! --Ben
March 17, 2018
Spring is only days away and our harbingers of the new season of warmth and growth are headed north. In the past couple weeks we worked to get the osprey cam back online. Last year the camera(s) were "friendly" hacked and we lost administrative controls. Luckily we were still able to control the camera and stream it, but were unable to make any administrative changes. We had to manually reset the camera by dropping it (to the ground) and then updating the network settings. We also used the opportunity to clean off the lens cover and evicting plenty of spiders and their webs...
After one last visit on March 16, we now have both cameras streaming online. Despite this good news, we've found that so far, the batteries are not holding a charge long into the night. Over the past couple weeks since we've re-gained online access to the cameras, they have not lasted past 9:00pm. We're not sure what is going on, but it appears that the batteries (current batteries were installed in March 2016, so they are not that old...) are giving us problems. We still have time before eggs are laid, so we MIGHT consider purchasing/replacing the batteries in the next 7-10 days.
Otherwise, the pair returned the earliest on March 19 in 2015, so we should be seeing some more activity at the nest in the coming days. Otherwise, there has been plenty of eagle and falcon activity on the nest. Check out our Interaction page to see plenty of screenshots of such activity.
Here are photos of the adults from last year. Will the same pair be back? Time will tell! -BW
Female osprey who nested at the osprey cam nest last year and all previous years. Will she return this year?
Here is the male. We hope to use feather color patterns on their head to confirm their ID.
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