This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
One of Longmont’s favorite couples were celebrating the birth of some of their little chicks this weekend while the community got to enjoy the show. The resident Osprey pair have been returning to their Longmont nest together since 2003 when they originally built their home on one of the light poles at the Boulder County Fairground. In 2009 biologists concerned for the birds safety, moved them east of Cattail pond to a new purpose build nest site not far away from the original.
Five years ago Boulder County decided to set up a public webcam so everyone could watch the birds nesting and hopefully get a front row seat for the hatching of any chicks. The first few years were spotted with technical problems but last year, thanks to View Into The Blue (a local company specializing in webcam streaming), the problems have now been ironed out and anyone can tune in day or night to check out how the birds are faring.
This season the pair, fondly known as Frankie and Johnny by locals, laid four eggs in total and have been keeping watch over them waiting, along the the viewers, for the first signs of hatching. Anyone tuning in early Saturday May 20th would have been treated to chick number one emerging at 6:35 am and then chick number two shortly after at 7:56 am. Chick number three waited until Sunday May 21 at 5:25 pm for their arrival. Sadly chick number two died this morning, Monday May 22nd at 7:56 am, but viewers are still hopefully for egg number four to hatch successfully with possible movements being seen today.
Three chicks successfully fledged the nest in 2015 but Osprey chicks only have a 50% chance of surviving their first year. Viewers tuning in over the next few weeks are likely to catch a glimpse of the chicks being fed by their parents. You can spot who's who out of the adult pair because the female has a speckled neck whereas the males neck is pure white. Osprey are the only local raptors that hunt almost exclusively fish. Some of the public places you can see them fishing are: Fairgrounds lake, Twin Peaks golf course, Lagerman Reservoir, Izaak Walton Pond, Golden Ponds, and Pella Crossing.
To watch a live view of the nest right now, possibly see egg number four hatch and to find out more about these amazing birds go to the Boulder County website. You can also watch the live stream below.
*Edit 05/25/17* Jasmine Finks from Boulder County parks and open spaces has requested the following information to be included with the article.
"Boulder County does not name their birds. We want to keep consistently and not confuse our audience. Per the wishes of Boulder County who run and maintain the cam, we will not name the birds. We refer to them as male (dad), female (mom), and chicks( #1, #2..etc)."
https://youtu.be/FouLVva4c3U
