BC
Description
This pair has been coming back to this nest for at least 6 years. They are one of the most experienced nest builders and navigators when compared to the 12 pairs of Shipping Creek (judging by twigs leftovers after the winter storms, and always #1 or #2 to arrive in March). Belle has quite the personality: very demanding, persistent and quite loud when hungry! But she is also very grateful and demonstrative when Buzz brings in ‘the good kind’ (aka menhaden).
2 Monitoring Group Affiliations
2026 Season Data
Nest Status
productive
Clutch Status
hatched
Young Status
fledged
Clutch history milestones
March 11, 2026
unknown
April 11, 2026
Brood history milestones
May 21, 2026
July 24, 2026
unknown
2
Activity log
| Date | Watcher | Adults | Eggs | Young | Observations | Photo | Edit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1 | BC | 2 | N | N | |||
| Note: | Witnessed something amazing, an epic territorial battle with one of the adult bald eagles who have a nest 1/4 mile up the creek. Every year they get at each other but this time, Belle and Buzz got help from the osprey pair Nico & Niki (nest neighbors to the North) and the multiple angles of attack allowed Buzz to hit the large eagle on its back, knocking it into the water. The eagle stayed in the water for about 10 seconds and eventually got its wings up in the air, made several attempts to shake the water off and, with apparent difficulty and effort, was able to get some lift and fly away, apparently unhurt but definitely shaken up! | ||||||
| April 14 | BC | 1 | U | N | incubation | ||
| Note: | Belle is sitting real low on the nest and vocalizing loudly if 'strangers' walk the pier. | ||||||
| April 21 | BC | 1 | U | N | incubation | ||
| Note: | Belle evidently on eggs. She is getting used to us but only if we are one at a time and if we talk to her, and, it seems ... preferentially no head gear; especially large brimmed hats! Those tend to make her nervous for some reason! | ||||||
| April 28 | BC | 2 | U | N | incubation | ||
| Note: | Belle on eggs, Buzz comes in several times a day with a fish. She is SO grateful when it is a menhaden; by now we can tell the difference just by her sweet vocalizations when he brings 'the good kind'! | ||||||
| May 5 | BC | 2 | U | N | incubation | ||
| Note: | Still mostly Belle doing the incubation but when Buzz brings in a fish, she leaves with it and eats it in her favorite tree nearby. Buzz seems to rearrange the eggs for 30 seconds or so, then he settles low in incubation position. Once Belle is done eating her fish, she returns to the nest and lets him know it's time for him to go hunt for another fish! | ||||||
| May 27 | BC | 1 | N | Y | feeding | ||
| Note: | 2 chicks observed, the larger one gets most of the food. When there is enough, the little one gets a few bits | ||||||
| June 1 | BC | 1 | N | 2 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Feathers clearly visible on the larger chick (the one who hatched 5/21) | ||||||
| June 10 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Only one chick left (the smaller one no longer there). Audible sounds, mimicking the mom | ||||||
| June 13 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Chick starting to self-feed (occasionally) and able to twitch the neck, just like mother-osprey ‘Belle’, I am assuming to swallow fish bones. Indeed, up to now Belle was feeding the chick only white meat but today I have seen a little fin being fed, which triggered the twitching of the neck, followed by -what appeared to be- several hick-ups! | ||||||
| June 14 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Because this chick was noticeably larger than the other one, we think it is likely a female. We decided to call her Bella. Bella is now 'potty-trained' (up to now she was squirting anywhere, including right at her mom...! -causing Belle (the mom) to have to leave the nest for a few minutes to go wash in the nearby beach/shoreline). But now Bella rotates her little body, tilt her rear-end up and squirts overboard. | ||||||
| June 18 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing |
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| June 22 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | young laying down |
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| June 27 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Chick alone in the nest quite frequently now and self feeding. Juvenile feathers clearly visible. The adult male (Buzz) has been observed bringing 6-8 fish/day | ||||||
| July 4 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing |
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| Note: | Impressive storm with frequent lightning strikes to ground. Belle seemed undisturbed by the flashes and loud booms, but clearly covering her chick. I took a lot of pictures trying to catch a lightning bolt and, frankly, didn’t stay long after taking that one… | ||||||
| July 6 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Chick observed exercising wings for the first time | ||||||
| July 10 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing |
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| Note: | Was able to get real close. Chick responding to voice cues to 'calm down' | ||||||
| July 11 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Observed first fish delivery of the day. Fish brought by the adult female and first time 'handing out' the fish talons to talons before feeding. | ||||||
| July 12 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| July 16 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | young standing | ||
| Note: | This morning, as I headed out at sunrise for what I thought would be a quiet kayak tour of my favorite nests on Long Creek, Belle was extremely agitated and fussed at me as I was still walking on the lawn, she continued as I walked the pier and the whole time as I got into the kayak. I kept reassuring her and borderline scolding her for her annoying behavior. My kayak dock is just 30 feet from her nest but we’re now in July and she has become familiar with my morning routine by now. This was highly unusual and as I was wondering why she was so upset at me, I saw her leave the nest and fly straight towards me, she swooped so close that I could feel the air movement. In a split second I was thinking “what is going on, should I protect my eyes?” I was sure she would come around for a second pass and this time from behind, to catch me on my blind spot… But no, she kept flying straight and, come to think of it, she did not have her talons out when she swooped. So, what just happened?, was she just trying to get my attention? For what unknown reason? She kept flying straight fussing the whole time. I immediately paddled as fast as I could to follow her. She led me straight to a tall loblolly pine about a 1/4 mile down the creek and she was now making repeated passes to the pine swooping and screeching aggressively. After a few minutes, as I got closer to the action, I understood everything: a big bald eagle was in the tree, facing the direction of her nest. She must have remembered how I chased away the eagles a few weeks ago and had literally called me to the rescue! Once I got within a couple of hundred feet of the tree, she returned straight to her nest and comforted Bella. The eagle was watching me, I raised my paddle and made a bearish ‘grrrrr’ noise. The eagle took off in the opposite direction and eventually disappeared over Shipping Creek’s horizon at least a couple of miles away… | ||||||
| July 16 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | The young is 8 weeks old today and is clearly self feeding (from fish caught by Buzz and handed over to Belle, sometimes with only the white meat left: I noticed that up to now, Belle was often eating the fish head and the guts herself). Also practicing wings flapping (but not getting any lift yet) | ||||||
| July 20 | BC | 2 | N | 1 | feeding, young standing | ||
| Note: | Observed a fish delivery from Osprey Buzz. Fish was small (between three and 4 inches). Osprey Belle literally jumped on the fish and immediately flew off to her nearby favorite tree. She came back 5 minutes later to bring the remaining morsels to her starving chick. | ||||||
| July 24 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | young standing |
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| Note: | Wow!, fledging day today: we saw her on mom & dad’s favorite tree branch! When approaching she took off almost gracefully, circled the creek twice (as mom-Belle was calling across) and we were able to watch her first landing back in the nest. Not bad at all. Here is a picture with landing gear fully extended and eyes sharply on the landing site. Good job Bella! | ||||||
| July 26 | BC | 1 | N | 1 | young standing |
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| Note: | Young Bella still comes home to the nest overnight (this morning we could hear her calling for food at 5:15am (so 45 minutes before sunrise), and continued calling for 30’… she went for a morning flight practice around 7am and came to approach Buzz’s favorite locust branch. With landing gear fully extended, she realized she was too fast and had to abort and go around the pattern one more time. She repeated this twice before improving her timing on the air brakes. I approached her from below (pictured) and made her go around one more time for good practice but mom-Belle came to the nest with a fish… that was immediately the end of practice; breakfast was served! | ||||||
| July 28 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | |||
| Note: | This morning, Bella decided to show off. She was perched on her favorite branch — a dead locust tree she’d claimed as her own — when she spotted me walking toward the pier. And she waited. She waited until I had the best seat in the house, a clear view of the whole sky, before she launched. Then the show began. Bella flew loop after loop between her nest and her branch, like she was tracing the same path in the sky again and again. That part alone was impressive. She’s only been flying for four days! But then she did something even braver. In the middle of her flight, she suddenly dropped her right wing and tipped sideways. Before I could even gasp, she flipped and dropped her left wing too. Then back to the right again — quick as a blink. It looked exactly like the move an osprey makes when it spots a fish flashing just beneath the water and dives in for the catch. Except there was no fish. Bella was just practicing — throwing herself off balance on purpose, again and again, like a gymnast rehearsing a trick. Was she showing off? I think so. She picked her spot, she picked her audience, and she picked her moment. That’s not an accident. What a show-off, Bella! | ||||||
| July 31 | BC | 0 | N | 1 | young standing | ||
| Note: | I write this a few days later because I believe 7/30 is when Belle left on her migration (a cold front had come through and skies cleared up with a good strong north wind (15/25kn). She was last seen and heard at sunrise on 7/29 - since then it has been all Buzz and Bella). I am a bit surprised by how soon (last year she left on 8/16), perhaps this is due to the scarcity of menhaden supply which is particularly severe this year, judging by the fact that in July we saw a herd of dolphins right here in our creek (only 4 ft deep on the chart). We have never seen this before. | ||||||
This nest has 6 reference photos. View Photos
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