Woolwich, Maine

I was at Taste of Maine again in the late afternoon.  The nest was empty when I first got there, but the staff reported that the fledgling had been seen.  After hanging out at a picnic table for a few minutes, enjoying the view out over the marsh and trying to peer into the woods where the adults sometimes perch, I drove down to the boat landing on the other side of the inlet, and tried looking back at the trees I can't see from the parking lot - and didn't see anyone there either. 

But as I was getting ready to leave, I saw wings on the nest - so I returned to the Taste of Maine - and found the fledgling and an adult at the nest, and the fledgling had a fish! I don't know which adult it was - the adult did stay for a couple of minutes before flying off to the woods across the road (he or she is somewhere in that picture of the woods, but I couldn't find where, so there's no red circle) - and males are more likely to leave immediately after delivering a fish, and it looked to me as if the adult was calling for fish, which would indicate a female - but the calling stopped as I got closer to the nest, so I can't be sure. I was wondering if the fledgling was going to fly off with her fish - but apparently she was just using her wings to help move it to her preferred dining area.

I'm including a lot of pictures (all click bigger) - the fledgling's time away from the nest reminds me that she might migrate sooner rather than later, given that she hatched later than most of the other chicks in New England. Enjoy!

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If you'd like to see additional pictures from this nest, and from the osprey nest "around the corner" on the Sasanoa River, you can use the link for my Local Wildlife Home Page at the top of the page to see an index to all the visits.