Osprey Nest - Charlo, Montana, USA

This camera sits level with an osprey nest on a man-made platform beside Ninepipes National Wildlife Refuge in Charlo, Montana. The nest is a deep pile of sticks and dried grass, and through the summer the frame is usually filled with a well-grown chick and one of the adults, with open pasture and the Mission Valley wetlands behind them.

The platforms here were put up more than twenty years ago on two private properties bordering the refuge, and the same osprey pair has used them alternately for many years. Around twenty-five pairs of Canada geese nest on the ground across these properties each season, and some have taken to using the raised structures as well.

Ospreys arrive in the Mission Valley in April and leave for Central and South America by September. Chicks fledge roughly seven to eight weeks after hatching, though they keep returning to the nest to be fed for several weeks afterwards, which is when the camera is at its busiest.

Did You Know? Ospreys have a reversible outer toe that lets them grip fish with two toes forward and two back, a hold no other raptor of their size can manage. Combined with dense oily feathers and nostrils that close on impact, it allows them to dive feet-first into water at speed without becoming waterlogged.

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