Hellgate Osprey - Mom Feeds Antali...or Not? 😏🙄Part One - W 8/21/24

This clip opens w/the arrival of a wet Iris who clearly just caught that nice fish she flew in with. She vocalized a little, seemed a bit jumpy, almost took off, then as if a young osprey again - she opened her wings and excitedly got a secure hold of her live fish w/those strong talons of hers.

And then, she waited... She looked down at her fish, she watched the wasps dancing all around their nest and she waited... Finally we hear him - Antali on the way!

It is then Iris gets into her fish to begin feeding her youngest offspring, her boy. She also began to eat from the fish for herself.

Antali vocalized at times but initially didn't seem interested in eating. At times too, he seemed ready to fall asleep at any moment. Then, he'd snap out of that and vocalize a bit. Iris was eating more of the fish at this point bec Antali was clearly just not into it. I don't recall if he had eaten before these moments or not.

It was a nice treat that The Cam Op had zoomed in during this feeding so we had a much closer view of Mother and Son.

Finally he started to be interested in eating but Iris kept giving him the fish bits on the end of his beak instead of inside it. Oops. They were at a very awkward angle to each other, definitely not conducive for a direct feeding. Many of the fish bits ended up falling onto the nest instead of inside Antali. Antali eventually got into picking up some of those fish bits that had fallen off, or out of, his beak.

I absolutely love hearing the squees of joy that the young ones emit when being fed! It's just so heart-warming to me.

Bless his heart, the fish kept getting stuck either on the exterior tip of his beak where Iris put it or right inside the far tip of it! I was wishing one of them would move a little, get at a better spot for the feeding, but oh well.

Near the end of the clip, The Cam Op zooms even closer in and that was awesome! However, I got a knot in my stomach watching this bec Antali had to work SO hard to get those fish bits! Poor guy. Mama didn't notice as she was fully engrossed in what she was doing. As the saying goes - the struggle was real!!

I felt for you my little muffin man! ;D

Continued...

Thanks for watching!

Thanks also Montana Osprey Project and Cornell Lab Bird Cams!