Three, One, Zero

Three day old, one day old and pipping ospreys.
D5, 24-100mm @ 70mm, f8, ss 1/125. ISO 1600
Every year (see other osprey chick post) I get a chance to go out with a biologist who has overseen a 2000 acre freshwater marsh for the past 35+ years. Among numerous other projects he has constructed and maintained about 55 nesting platforms for ospreys. He tags the chicks every year and has one female who is back for the 21st year. This year about 60 chicks remain alive and healthy, a strong year. By this time of year chicks should be about a week or two away from fledging. This is a very late clutch and the young may not be fully ready to be on their own when it is time to migrate to South America in the fall. About 50% of chicks do not survive the first migration to return to their place of birth.
Orphan ospreys are almost impossible to raise by hand as unlike most raptors they will not take food in captivity. When this biologist gets an orphan he places it in a nest that has chicks that are about the same age and the parents feed the extra mouth as if nothing has changed in the nest. The adults are quite tolerant of the biologist as he is around the nests almost daily and handling, weighing, tagging the chicks is taken in stride.
You can see the egg tooth on the right hand chick an the starting of the chick breaking out of the shell. The nest is littered with fish scales.