Unique Foster Family Opens Wings to New Osprey Chicks

A Chesapeake couple recently adopted a pair of foster kids into their home, which is certainly a nice story, but is far from newsworthy.

Except the couple is a pair of osprey, as are the foster kids, and the home is a nest in the Chesapeake along the shores of Kent Island.

Now we’ve got ourselves a story.

Tom and Audrey, the parent osprey, were new mates last year and had three eggs together, according to the Chesapeake Conservancy website. Unfortunately, those eggs were not viable, which is apparently not uncommon for first-year mates, as explained by ornithologist Dr. Paul Spitzer on the website.

Dr. Spitzer was consulted regarding the nonviable eggs, and he was the first to suggest Tom and Audrey take on foster babies.

Upon receiving that suggestion, the Chesapeake Conservancy then contacted Craig Koppie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Bay Field Office to look further into the possibility of Tom and Audrey becoming foster parents.

Koppie monitored Tom and Audrey via a webcam (known as “Osprey Cam,” which the public can also use to watch osprey in the Chesapeake from home) and then made a visit to their nest in an effort to determine whether or not they’d be suitable foster parents. During this time, the couple continued to incubate the nonviable eggs, leading Koppie to conclude the couple would be suitable foster parents.

However, that’s only half the equation.

Tom and Audrey and their human supporters now needed to find viable eggs residing in an ill-fated nest, warranting a relocation to Tom and Audrey’s nest. The fact that the adopted chicks would need to be between 10-14 days old to have the best chance of success only complicated matters further.

But the couple found its potential foster babies sooner rather than later.

Last month, on nearby Poplar Island, an area deemed to be unsafe for baby osprey, the USFWS found two misplaced eggs and brought them to a nest that already contained three eggs. It was then that officials decided to relocate two or three of the chicks if all the eggs hatched. Four of the five eggs did hatch, and Koppie and his colleagues determined foster parents would be needed to lighten the load of raising four chicks at one time.

After it was determined earlier this week that all four chicks were doing well since hatching, officials decided to take the two chicks with the most weight and the best body condition to be Tom and Audrey’s foster chicks.

On Wednesday morning, the chicks met their new parents, and the parents were quick to accept the chicks as their own.

“This pair was incredibly determined to hatch and rear young. I am glad to see that a solution was possible, and it was done in a collaborative manner that was a win for wildlife and our osprey-cam viewing public,” Koppie said in the release.

In addition to checking out the new family via the “Osprey Cam,” the public can also follow the story on the “Osprey Cam Blog.”

Here’s live footage of the chicks being placed into their new nest, and of their first interaction with their new foster parents:

Image credit: Crazy Osprey Family