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Are You Missing A Plushy Blue Travel Bug?

Planet

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Sparrowhawk

+Sparrowhawk

Posted
Posted
Awaiting a daily breifing on Conflict in Osprey Nest: A Special Report.

How's Ozzy fairing today? I saw he was man, err osprey, handled yesterday.

Picked up a stick mid-morning, otherwise pretty quiet from what I've caught.

 

What an un-bear-able thread.

How can anyone get that bear from the ospreys? You'll just have to wing it. :D

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Planet

+Planet

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Couple of things:

1. There is no wifey, just Mom, Dad, and Little Dude. Mom and Little Dude both have the same speckles on their hackles and Dad's is all white. Little Dude, so far, still has some white tips on his feathers, but that is fading.

 

2. I sure am glad you're kidding about shooting the camera, because I'm hoping to interest the Audubon Society into letting us retrieve the bear if at all possible when the nest is not active anymore.

 

3. The Road Warrior Series cache is not at all dangerously close, it's on the Connecticut River and this nest is at the mouth of the Housatonic River, however, I took a boat ride up the CT River a few weeks back and there's an osprey nest on every pole or navigation tower. So who knows. No webcams over there!

 

4. Munin, you absolutely crack me up!!!! I love that cartoon!

Fiiiiish! I'm going to come back as an Osprey if I ever get to re-incarnate.

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Munin

+Munin

Posted
Posted
*Ding ding ding ding* - I think we have a winner here! Great job, Blue Power Ranger! :)
Not quite. :)

Check the feet.

No match. :)

Oh yes, I meant to revisit this. Planet was right on the money about the fish-eye lens distortion - the pic I'd looked at when I first pondered the bear's size had an osprey in the foreground, which made it look like the bear was about the size of the bird's head. I dug through some other shots I'd saved and found one where the bear and an osprey are both about the same radial distance from the lens, which should reduce the effects of the lens distortion. Measurements with the internationally recognized "Teddy Bear" unit of distance (1 TB == "height of one osprey-adopted blue teddy bear") now lead me to believe that an osprey is approximately 3.3 TBs from beak to tail, or conversely that 1 TB is somewhere around 7 inches. That's pretty close to the regular-size beanie bears - they're usually listed as being 8" tall.

 

size_tb_vs_osprey.jpg

 

2. (...) I'm hoping to interest the Audubon Society into letting us retrieve the bear if at all possible when the nest is not active anymore.

Cool! :huh: Let me know if that looks like that might happen! I actually ordered an Audubon beanbag osprey the other night, thought it'd be fun to turn it into a travel bug:

 

80528.jpg

 

(If a rescue mission doesn't turn out to be possible, I've also got a McNugget Beanie Bear on the way. Might not be a match for the one in the nest, but I figured it'd be somewhat proportional to the beanie osprey.)

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Planet

+Planet

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You guys crack me up! A laugh a day in this thread, hehehe.

I'm watching the bear now and it's the wind flapping the bow around. What I can't figure out is what is that light blue streak across the bear, I thought it might be reflection from some new nest addition, like someone's car trim or something shiny, but it's there in the evening, it's there in the morning and it's there when Little Dude tried hatching a teddy bear. It wasn't there before! Weird. I don't think it's a stick either, because there is a break in the line right at the neck.

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Munin

+Munin

Posted
Posted

The light streak first showed up yesterday afternoon between 2:00 pm and 2:20 pm. I didn't catch whatever happened between those times, but there's no streak in prior pictures and it's there in all the ones afterwards.

 

osprey_cam_20060817_140001.jpg <== streak-free at 2:00pm

osprey_cam_20060817_142001.jpg <== streak appears at 2:20pm

 

I'd have to agree w/Planet that it's not reflected light - it was faintly visible after sunset last night, and very visible before sunrise this morning:

 

osprey_cam_20060818_054001.jpg <== still visible at 5:40 am (sunrise was 5:54 am)

 

One possibility I might put forth is that ...umm... ...well... there is a kind of white streak that's commonly associated with birds. :ph34r::lol:

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gailois

+gailois

Posted
Posted (edited)

Perhaps it's a Splood. Check out this website for the diagrams of the 'variations in ornithological dejecta'

 

http://www.monpa.com/ba/anatomy.html

 

A knowledge of the different parts of each splay is essential to fully describe and understand the variations in ornithological dejecta.

 

Schplerter

Large.

Multiple extended and detached lobes.

Usually taken at high speeds or results from extended drop height.

Often has disintegrated nucleus.

 

Schplutz

Varies in size with large extended lobes.

The lower ones may contain sub–nuclear particles and the occasional solid.

 

Sklop

Small.

Clearly defined envelope and nucleus of roughly equal proportions.

No tendency to lobe.

Usually taken at low speeds or results from short drop height.

 

Splerd

Large.

Envelope covers greater area than the nucleus which may be almost non–existent.

Little distinction between inner and outer envelopes.

 

Splood

Varies in size.

Typified by a single extended lobe which may contain sub–nuclear particles and occasionally solids.

 

ospreysplay.jpg

 

edited to add picture showing the nucleus, subnucleus and envolope on the post behind Blue Bear, aka Ozzy :ph34r:

Edited by gailois
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Planet

+Planet

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It's definitely a SPLOOD! We found one like it on the trail yesterday. Thanks for finding the correct definition of the ornithological dejecta for us, way too funny! But when on the trail we knew exactly what to call it.

 

Splood

Varies in size.

Typified by a single extended lobe which may contain sub–nuclear particles and occasionally solids.

This looks just like what hit our bear.

 

5d6f9687-321e-44b3-a36a-66d62c62c651.jpg

 

This particular splood placer knew to dot all its i's and cross its T's hehehe

4bf30631-89d3-41ac-a54c-0f206a4d982d.jpg

Edited by Planet
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gailois

+gailois

Posted
Posted (edited)

This is by far the best thread on the forums. We'll be watching Ozzy's progress daily.

 

Let me tell ya - Ozzy has taken over my life. First thing I do when I get up in the morning and get home from work at night is turn on the Osprey cam!

Edited by gailois
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gailois

+gailois

Posted
Posted (edited)

Looks like there is a cache there - GCGPDH

 

Look in google earth at N 41° 10.550 W 073° 06.105

 

edit - I just started looking at the posts to the cache and someone submitted a picture of the osprey nest from the ground.

Edited by gailois
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Planet

+Planet

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Yes, RJ Ferret has a cache there. It's located at the Audubon Center at Milford Point. I just do not know if a kayak is allowed. But it does look like I could paddle to retrieve the cache if they were allowed but again I stress NOT while the nest is active. I treasure my eyesight! However if it falls, this is a tidal marsh and the tide comes in and goes out every 6 hours, so retrieval time is limited, if at all possible. If it lands in the water it could be gone in minutes. I live about an hour away. And I work 8:30-5:00 M-F. This is really beginning to look like Mission Impossible! We can only try. But I want it to be on the up and up with the Audubon Society.

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MountainMudbug

+MountainMudbug

Posted
Posted

Cool to see the nest from the ground view, I didn't realize it was so close to 'civilization'!

It would be very neat if the society could rig a sort of basket-like circle of netting around the bottom of the post to catch the bear if it falls out.......

Wish I could download the stuff to view the live camera, but DH gets really peeved whenever I do that :laughing:

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Planet

+Planet

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AT 7:15 this morning Ozzy the love doll was in the middle of the nest. Now it looks like Ozzy is trying to jump ship again! This is at 7:40AM today (ok 7:47):

 

e91cab5f-7567-43d0-b6ed-a57faf7c6a84.jpg

 

I didn't see what happened. I haven't seen anyone on the nest in the last few looks. And I have to work today. if anyone sees this bear fall over, email me through my profile! It's going to be a gorgeous week for a paddle!

Edited by Planet
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Planet

+Planet

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Maybe our Osprey have Bower Bird tendencies. My cousin Klawed of the KuprakKrew mentioned the bower bird habits, after I showed her this thread (which we had a great time reading together) and I checked it out.

From this pbs.org link on the bower bird it reads:

 

For the male Satin, which builds a U-shaped bower from parallel walls of twigs, the favored color is blue. To decorate its "avenue," as scientists call it, he collects blue feathers, berries, shells, and flowers. While some of these decorations are found in the forest, others are stolen from the bowers of other males; young males, in particular, are prone to this petty thievery. However obtained, the precious knickknacks are then scattered around the bower. The male then waits, passing time by constantly fine-tuning his structure and rearranging the decorations.

 

Osprey threads, they're fun, full of suspense and education! LOL!!

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Planet

+Planet

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Morning update. Little Dude has just yelled at another Osprey that landed on and took off from the nest, it might have been Mom or Dad. It happened too fast to know. Ozzy looks like he's sporting a new splood. This one goes left to right, top to bottom.

5c85997b-ac13-412c-a0ee-51bea49c5d91.jpg

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