Well, folks, it was a fun ride. The first season of the RVAOspreyCam is now in the books. Our adults returned in March, mated, and laid three eggs (two of which hatched). We had a naming contest for the adults (Maggie and Walker won) and watched as the chicks grew and thrived. Now they’ve grown up and left the nest to fish the James just like their parents. But unlike Maggie and Walker, this year’s chicks won’t come back to our nest. They’ll have to find their own territory and mates when they return from South America after the upcoming winter.

The two newborn chicks on May 1st.

There are still plenty of ospreys in the area, of course — I saw four near the Nickel Bridge just on Monday — but, while they’ll stop by from time to time, they’re no longer using the nest as their base of operations.

Maggie and Walker will be back next year, assuming good health persists in the intervening months, and when they do we’ll be ready for them. This offseason we’ll be adding audio, so we can hear all the birds’ vocalizations, and infrared, to facilitate nighttime viewing. Next year’s cam will be 24 hours of audio-visual avian bliss!

If you were an RVAOspreyCam viewer (we had over a quarter million views in 5 months!), thanks for spending time with us. If this is your first time hearing about the cam, check out the site to learn more and check back in with us late next February when the osprey show returns to downtown RVA.