The osprey duo nesting at the Boulder County Fairgrounds near Longmont welcomed their first new baby of the season on Wednesday morning.
The chick hatched about 5:30 a.m., according to Nik Brockman, a web administrator. The egg first started to crack early Wednesday, and the chick was seen moving around in its nest while its mother warmed it, which is typical for the moments soon after hatching, Brockman said.
Both the chick’s parents were in the nest after the chick hatched, with its father still bringing new sticks to the nest while the baby bird witnessed its first sunrise. The parents are still waiting for three other eggs laid last month to hatch.
“It’s really cool to see the male and the female both be there when the chick hatched,” Brockman said.
In the past 12 years, the fairgrounds’ osprey couple usually lays from one to four eggs, Brockman said. Last year, three of the pair’s four eggs hatched, and two of them survived their first months, he said.
“This nest has been pretty successful,” Brockman said. About 50% of osprey chicks don’t survive the first year of their lives, according to , a Cornell University resource for bird information.
It’s hard to know whether the other eggs will hatch or survive this season, Brockman said. All we can do is wait and see, he said.
The fairgrounds’ avian duo laid the other three eggs of their clutch on April 12, April 15 and April 18, according to Parks & Open Space. The April 12 egg is expected to hatch soon.
The osprey nest is just east of Cattail Pond at the fairgrounds, and has been there since 2009, when wildlife biologists moved it from a nearby light pole where the birds first made their nest. The nest was close to the fairgrounds arena and needed to be relocated twice to find a good home for it, Brockman said.
Watch the osprey nest online at .
