Hellgate Ospreys

Iris

We called Iris "Iris" several years ago because of the very distinctive pigment patterns in her irises.

Here is a picture of Iris' very distinctive left iris. We took this picture on 14 June last summer. So when Ospreys land on the nest, we will be zooming in to get close up pictures of their eyes!

April 7
IRIS IS BACK!! She looks in great shape, and you can see that her behavior is very different from the Osprey that was on the nest earlier in the week. She is confident and assertive. Now we can just hope that Stanley survived the winter too.
April 20
Is Stanley back?
I just got a glimpse of a male with narrow, long head and large eyes on the Hellgate nest who resembled Stanley.

After Stanley's dramatic arrival on Friday, he and Iris have already started their 2013 nest with the arrival of egg #1 midday today, Monday, May 6th.

April 30.
Here is our Snowbird Iris during the perhaps last snowstorm of the season. The coming days are supposed to bring higher temperatures, probably causing rising rivers and higher turbidity. This could bring other problems, namely difficult fishing.

May 07, 2013
Everyone was excited by Stanley's return at the Hellgate Osprey nest and the arrival of an egg on Monday. However, the birds neglected this egg and it broke. Why would they do this? Female birds can store sperm for some time after they mate, so there is a good chance that this "first" egg was not fertilized by Stanley and was actually the third egg from the previous male. The folks at Project Osprey suspect that the next egg that Iris lays will be accepted by Stanley. There is still time in the season to lay eggs, raise young and have healthy fledglings.
May 14, 2013
Two Eggs at the Hellgate Nest!
Iris has started laying again and this time her clutch is fathered by Stanley. The first egg arrived May 11th in the evening, and the second one came this evening.

fish

eating and feeding