Hog Island鈥檚 Osprey Pair Lose Chick to Nighttime Owl Raid

The Great Horned Owl struck the nest a little after midnight, leaving behind two survivors.

UPDATE: July 13, 2017, 9:45 a.m.: The Hog Island Osprey nest suffered another owl attack last night. Rachel attempted to fight the owl off but was unsuccessful, and another chick was taken. Rachel and one chick remain together safely on the nest at this time.

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Alas, another year, another nest predation for Rachel and Steve.

For the third year in a row now, beloved Osprey couple has lost at least one chick from the exact same nest. For the past two, daytime raids by Bald Eagles have been to blame. But this year, a Great Horned Owl attacked in the midst of darkness. 

As the above clip from our 探花精选 and  shows, the large owl stealthily snuck in a little after 1 a.m., plucking one of the slumbering chicks from the nest. In response, Rachel swoops from her perch to defend the nest while sounding her warning calls鈥攂ut to no avail. 

Although Great Horned Owls are common on the Maine mainland, they are less so on Hog Island, making such predation behavior rare. 鈥淭his was very surprising, actually, because we鈥檝e never had an owl attack on Hog Island before,鈥 says Steve Kress, vice president of conservation and director of 探花精选鈥檚 seabird restoration program. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 hear our Great Horned Owls hooting out here often. In fact, I haven鈥檛 heard any hooting this year. And we don鈥檛 know of any active nests.鈥 

Oddly enough, this wasn鈥檛 the first Great Horned attack on an Osprey nest caught on video this year. Earlier this month, an Osprey cam in Ontario, Canada,  at night as well. Only in this one the owl decided to hang around and feast on the chick right in the nest. Kress says that the Ontario nest was a much easier target because those chicks were only left with one parent for protection after the female died. Males don鈥檛 tend to guard the nest at night, he notes. 

While these sorts of attacks aren鈥檛 typically caught on film, Great Horned Owl predation on other raptor nests are fairly common. In fact, according to Kress, they鈥檙e even one of the reasons the  moved its falcon release sites from the countryside into canyons and even more urban areas where Great Horned Owls are less of a threat. 鈥淭he owls just cleaned out their chicks,鈥 Kress says. 

As for whether Rachel and Steve will take this third strike as a sign that it鈥檚 time to move, Kress says that what seems like a bad string of luck is really just nature, and in reality, raising any chicks to adulthood should be considered a success. 鈥淚 think what we鈥檙e seeing is a typical kind of scene, where some chicks fledge, and some chicks are predated. I don't think they鈥檙e gonna move,鈥 he says. 鈥淚f they fledge any chicks, they鈥檙e going to keep coming back.鈥 

To add to to the drama of last night鈥檚 attack, all three chicks were supposed to be banded this morning by a crew from the . Despite the surprise, the team proceeded with its plan and successfully banded the two survivors. 

Such attacks can be disturbing for people who follow cam nests closely, but Kress reminds that they鈥檙e a good opportunity for learning. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing here as always with these cams is a window to the real challenges of living in nature, where you鈥檙e constantly on guard, and the parents are making these decisions about whether to risk their own well being for the chicks,鈥 he says.

There鈥檚 no way of knowing whether the owl will return for the other two chicks, but Kress says he鈥檚 interested to see if Rachel stays closer to the nest the next few nights. Last year, the Bald Eagle didn鈥檛 return after taking one chick, so the rest of the family might still be safe. But nothing is ever a given with nature. 

鈥淲hen you think about all of those young birds just sitting in that nest鈥攚hat a meal, what an opportunity to be fed on by a predator,鈥 Kress says. 鈥淭he nest is sort of like a bull鈥檚-eye.鈥 

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