It’s a bittersweet time over at the RVA Osprey Cam. If you haven’t checked in on Maggie and Walker recently (those are the adult ospreys), you missed their two chicks both successfully fledging — i.e. taking flight out of the nest. The younger of the two just fledged a couple of days ago — the older a few days before that.

A young osprey tests its wings in the nest days before fledging.

However, that doesn’t mean all the action is over at the nest. Our young ospreys will spend a couple of weeks getting stronger in the air and learning to hunt the James River on their own. As we’ve seen already, they return to the nest periodically, as do Maggie and Walker, to rest and eat fish the parents bring.

It’s been an incredible first season for the RVA Osprey Cam, starting in early March with the return of Maggie and Walker from points south, followed by mating, egg laying, hatch watch, hatching, watching the young in the nest and now fledging. Time draws near for the end of this season. It won’t be more than a few weeks before the young birds are gone for good. Maggie and Walker, of course, we’ll see again next winter when they return from South America for Season 2!