Last week we solicited name pairs for our osprey parents at the RVA Osprey Cam (click here to find out why we’re naming the adults, not the chicks). Well, now it’s time to unveil the top five pairs chosen by a panel of distinguished judges from RichmondOutside and the Friends of the James River Park.

But first some context. We received almost 70 submissions from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, the cam site chat room and email. The suggestions were all over the map, from the world of entertainment (Porgy and Bess, Olive Oyl and Popeye, Bonnie and Clyde), to sports (Larry and Magic) to Norse mythology (Odin and Freyja).  James and Belle and Ralph and Cricket (i.e. former James River Park Manager Ralph White and his wife Cricket) tied for the most submissions.

It wasn’t easy winnowing those choices down to five, but we burned the midnight oil and got it done. As of this moment, when you go to the RVA Osprey Cam site, you’ll find a voting button. Submit your email address and you can vote once an hour, all day every day through 3:30 p.m on May 21st. That’s the Sunday of Dominion Riverrock, and that’s when we’ll announce the winning name pair at the Friends of the James River Park booth at Riverrock. Shortly thereafter, we’ll put the winning name online.

So, here we are. Drumroll please…

The names are:

James and Belle – submitted by Mike Holbert, Adrienne Fenley and Rachel Cohen

Ralph and Cricket – submitted by Brent Merritt, Lorne Field and Molly Dellinger-Wray

Maggie and Walker – submitted by Carol Shimkus

Oscar and Olive – submitted by Hadley Walder

Annabel and Lee – submitted by Mary Beth Long

Click here to vote!

Christian Wood just sent us this sweet video highlighting some of Richmond’s most popular outdoor pursuits — whitewater kayaking, mountain biking and rock climbing. It’s the kind of clip that makes you look out the window, check the weather and think hard about whether you want to take a half day off from work. (The answer is yes, you should.)

Nice work, Christian!

One of the parents leans over to feed the first hatchling.

Yesterday morning, viewers at the RVAOspreyCam were treated to an amazing moment. At 7:45 a.m., the mother osprey stood up and walked to the edge of the nest. The day before that act would have revealed three eggs. Yesterday, we saw two eggs and a tiny chick. It was a beautiful sight.

Throughout the day we watched as the mother and father periodically brought half eaten shad to the nest and fed the hatchling, while still sitting on it and it’s yet-to-be-born siblings. Those other two eggs shouldn’t be far behind in their hatching. The second chick could break out any moment.

And as if all that excitement wasn’t enough, today the Times-Dispatch featured the story of the cam on the front page. Great photos by Dean Hoffmeyer and story by Colleen Curran on A1!

It’s been a heady 36 hours in osprey cam land, but we’re just getting started. In addition to the two other imminent hatchings, we’ll be announcing a naming contest for the parents very soon. We figured it was a good idea to name the parents, instead of the babies, because osprey pairs stay together (often for life) and return to the same nest year after year. So we’ll get to know these two, whereas the soon-to-be fledglings will eventually have to find mates and territory of their own.

Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, click here for more osprey baby action.

Screen cap taken this morning of a wet osprey waiting on an egg to hatch.

It’s a gorgeous morning in RVA as we await the emergence of baby osprey No. 1 from its egg. The weather looks like it will turn nasty over the weekend — rainy and much cooler. Today, Day 3 of #hatchwatch, could be the big day! Then again, it might not. Afterall, our friend April the giraffe officially took forever to birth her baby last week.

And don’t forget: Tomorrow egg No. 2 goes on the clock (assuming standard osprey incubation period of 34-40 days). Gird your loins, Richmond, if you thought just one #hatchwatch was exciting, imagine waiting on two…

In the meantime, enjoy the above pic of the cam site from our friend Ted Elmore (taken from the Manchester Bridge).

Click here to go to the cam.

Ospreys swirled around RichmondOutside’s Ryan Abrahamsen yesterday as he worked to fix the internet feed at the cam site.

It’s been a crazy few days in RVA Osprey World. Last Thursday our internet signal started to degrade due to interference from other signals near our ethernet bridge on a rooftop in Manchester. It’s complicated, but the bottom line is that yesterday we had to raft out to the cam site, climb the old bridge piling, and reset the receiver right next to the camera. It took maybe 90 seconds. Our osprey friends weren’t happy. They dive bombed us a couple of times, but, as you can tell from the current feed, they went back to the eggs after we left. And the feed is back up!

That brings is to the even bigger news: Today is the first day the first of the three eggs could hatch. Osprey eggs incubate from 34-40 days. Today is Day 34 for egg No. 1. Crunching the numbers, egg No. 2 could hatch starting on Friday and egg No. 3 on Saturday.

This is going to be better than April the giraffe. Trust us! This is real, wild nature. The parents will bring fish back to the nest. Eagles could attack. Who knows what may happen with three new mouths to feed?

Click here for the live feed.

RVAH2O, a local initiative by Richmond Department of Public Utilities to support watershed management efforts, is once again seeking local artists paint a strong message on city storm drains about keeping our streets and waterways clean.

One of last year’s storm drain art works. Credit: Justin Doyle

The RVAH2O Storm Drain Art Project today is launching an online call for entries, whereby local artists ages 18+ are invited to submit proposed designs. Entries should reflect the overall theme of “It All Drains to the James” and include elements showing natural habitats; water and the species the river supports; and environmental stewardship. The entry deadline is Monday, April 17, at 11:59 p.m.

Stormwater is runoff from rain or snow. Along the way, it picks up dirt, trash, oil, grease, pesticides, fertilizers, pet waste and other pollutants. Eventually, this enters storm drains that flow into waterways. This impacts the James River, one of Richmond’s greatest natural assets adored not only for its natural beauty and species, but also for swimming, watersports and fishing.

“Educating our city on the subject of clean waterways is very important for a sustainable water resource. By using art on storm drains to share our message, we’ve connected people with this purpose,” said Robert Steidel, Director, Department of Public Utilities, City of Richmond. “We’re delighted to continue our award winning Storm Drain Art Project this year, as a means of continually educating and informing Richmonders and visitors to our city to do their part in keeping trash and pollution out of our waterways.”

An independent panel of judges from DPU and the Richmond Public Art Commission will judge the entries and will select four winning designs. The winning artists will be asked to paint storm drains flowing into the James River in late May.

Each artist who is selected will be compensated with a $400 stipend for their work and materials, like tools and brushes. Richmond DPU will provide non-slip paint, basic brushes and water tubs.

In 2016, Richmond DPU launched the city’s first-ever Storm Drain Art Project, which garnered 55 submissions from local artists. A panel of judges, including the Richmond Public Art Commission, chose five winners and one alternate to paint their art on storm drains along a half-mile stretch of Tredegar Street in downtown Richmond.

“Even in our first year, we were astounded by the interest from local artists, and by the quality of their entries,” noted Steidel. “We were impressed by the enthusiasm expressed by hundreds of citizens who not only walked along Tredegar Street to view the art, but who also responded by voting online for their ‘Fan Favorite’.”

A standup paddleboarder at last year’s James River Rundown. Credit: Jameson Brunkow

2016 marked the third year of the James River Rundown, an annual event organized by the James River Association. The James River Rundown’s popularity has grown since the inaugural 100-mile race in 2014. Nearly 100 individuals from across Virginia and the United States participated in last year’s event.

The 2017 James River Rundown features a grueling two-day 120-mile endurance race that begins the morning of June 24th at Riveredge Park in Lynchburg, Virginia. The 120-mile race is one of the longest of its kind on the East Coast.

According to Justin Doyle, Community Conservation Manager of the James River Association and one of the event’s organizers: “The James River Rundown showcases the beauty of the James while promoting river recreation. It’s an opportunity for participants to explore the James while racing through rapids in canoes, kayaks, and even on standup paddleboards.”

In addition to the 120-mile race, this year’s event also features a one-day 50-mile race starting in Scottsville on the 24th, a 25-mile race on June 25th starting at Cartersville and ending at Goochland County’s Tucker Park, and also on the 25th a 5-mile float starting at Powhatan State Park.

All three races finish at Goochland County’s Tucker Park for a family-friendly post-race celebration featuring food, beverage, and live music on Sunday, June 25th.

Registration for the 2017 James River Rundown is open! Visit www.JamesRiverRundown.org to register. Proceeds from the James River Rundown benefit the James River Association.

This morning (March 27) an osprey got up to shift the eggs around. Two are visible at its feet.

Richmond’s favorite pair of ospreys (featured at RVAOspreyCam.com) isn’t slowing down. Every couple of days it seems, there’s something to report. Last Thursday the female laid a third egg. Given what is normal for ospreys — 2-4 eggs, laid 1-3 days apart — that is probably her last. Now comes the waiting. If you’ve followed the cam closely, you’ve seen that both birds will sit on and incubate the eggs. Usually the other flies off when they switch, presumably to hunt for fish, though we haven’t seen them actually eat a fish at the nest yet.

That will change when the chicks hatch and the parents must bring them food for the first few weeks of their lives. When will the first chick hatch? Online sources tell us that ospreys eggs hatch 34-40 days after being laid. That puts the hatching of the first egg at April 19-25, but let’s be honest, who knows?

Stay tuned! And in the meantime enjoy these pics from the recent nest activity.

One osprey and two eggs in the nest back on March 20. Three days later a third egg was laid.

This nest has been a reminder that ospreys will use ANYTHING to line their nests! Viewers have been particularly concerned about the plastic bag shown here, which is still part of the nest structure but now in a different place.

Check it out, Richmond: A baby is on the way! The female osprey we’ve been following at RVAOspreyCam.com has been sitting on the nest in a very particular way since yesterday afternoon. This morning, when she got up to stretch, we found out why. We have an egg!

According to the Center for Conservation Biology’s Osprey Watch program, as nest building nears its conclusion, courtship and mating intensify resulting in the laying of 2-4 eggs.  Eggs vary considerably in coloration but typically have a cream-colored base with blotches of some secondary color.  Both adults alternate incubating eggs for approximately 35 days before hatching.

So, A) that may actually be the male you see helping to incubate the egg and B) by Saturday we may have another egg, as ospreys lay eggs “asynchronously,” i.e. one at a time with a delay in between.

The James River’s version of must-see TV is here, folks!

The ospreys in the nest this morning. Credit: RVAospreycam.com

The idea was born a couple of years ago: Showcase the natural wonders of Richmond’s downtown through an osprey cam atop a Richmond-Petersburg Railroad bridge piling. And now, finally, here we are. RichmondOutside.com is excited to announce the RVA Osprey Cam — to our knowledge the only entirely self-sustained (i.e. solar power, remote internet connection) urban raptor cam in America. And it’s in HD!

For the past few weeks, we, along with can-do partners Riverside Outfitters and local rock climbing legend Connor Riley, have made trip after trip out to the 40-foot granite pillar between the Manchester and T-Pot bridges. We had to climb the beast, rig up ladders, then haul hundreds of pounds of equipment up there — camera, solar panels, batteries, cable and metal frames. Then we had to secure a reliable internet connection. This can only be delivered remotely, since you can’t run an ethernet cable under the James. We owe a debt of gratitude to Rocketts Landing and Sam McDonald at Property Results for letting us use their roofs to facilitate the live stream. We think it looks great.

Connor Riley climbs the bridge piling early on in the osprey cam installation process.

The camera offers 360-degree pan and 30x zoom functions, so periodically we’ll pan around and check things out on the river. Maybe we’ll focus on a raft trip coming downstream or zoom in to see what’s going on at the Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge. Dominion Riverrock will be a great time to pan over to Brown’s Island to check out the action.

But of course, the birds will be the main attractions. We’ll get to watch them mate and lay eggs; we’ll watch those eggs hatch and the young eat the shad and herring the parents bring back to the nest. Then we’ll watch them fledge. Ospreys are migratory, but they won’t leave this area until the fall. We’ll have the whole spring and summer to get to know them and their young. Maybe we’ll even have a naming contests for the babies!

We plan to add some features to the site, FAQs, chat, ask the expert, etc., in the coming weeks. And we’ll be sending out highlights to anyone who signs up for the newsletter. Missed the eggs hatching because you were away from your desk? Not to worry. We’ll send you an email blast with the highlights. If you have any questions or suggestion for the cam or the webpage, feel free to email me at andy@richmondoutside.com.

In the meantime, RVA, meet your new neighbors. You can find them at RichmondOutside.com and RVAOspreyCam.com