Ralph came back right on schedule this year - March 10th. Alice, however was missing. Both birds normally arrive within 12 hours of each other, but this year after several days, we still hadn't spotted Alice. On the 14th we noticed a female on the nesting platform, but she appeared smaller than Alice with a lighter necklace (the brown feathers on the breast that are the quickest way to differentiate females from males). The following weekend, Chris was able to take some closeup pictures with his monster lens and confirmed that it was not Alice. Ralph had a new mate, so we assumed that Alice was no longer with us.
About 30 days later, we spotted an osprey resting on our neighbor's duck blind which is relatively close to the nest. Ralph doesn't tolerate other ospreys in close proximity to the nest, but he wasn't running the visitor off -- very unusual...
Examination with binoculars confirmed it was a female and she was about the size we remembered Alice to be. Again, closeup pictures allowed us to confirm the visitor's identity - it was Alice! Now what? Ospreys mate for life and attach to the same nest for life, so we were interested to see what would happen. Apparently nothing. Alice seems to be spending the entire season hanging out on the duck blind while Ralph and his new mate raise this year's brood in the nest. When he isn't assisting in the feeding or care of the chicks, Ralph either hangs out in nearby trees or joins Alice on the duck blind platform. They haven't mated, she hasn't built a nest. She is just staying nearby. Now we will have to wait until next year to see what happens if both females return from their winter migration at the same time and try to claim the nest.
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