Congratulations! It's a Baby Osprey!

An "Osprey Cam" has captured the moments that a baby osprey emerges from its shell in its Dunedin nest.

At about 1:30 into the video shown above, it is clear that the big event is imminent, as the Mama Osprey starts chattering and Papa walks back and forth with a twig in his mouth.

The mother gets up from the nest, and both birds peer down as the hatchling appears. Tufts of feathers are just barely visible.

The parent ospreys seem to move more gently, as they welcome the littles one into the brave, new world.

The nest is perched high on a power utility pole. (For details, see "History of Dunedin Osprey Cam below.)

Head to the Dunedinospreycam.com website to watch the osprey family in their nest in real time.

According to Dunedinospreycam.com:

"This is the first hatch of the season at DunedinOspreyCam.org.  Arrow points at shell that female removed from chick.

"We think the female is in her first breeding season. She has laid two eggs, one on March 16th and the second on March 19th.  TweetDreams1 caught a nice video at http://youtu.be/8BEp0hynnbg

"The really exciting part is now watching the couple feed and raise the young until they are ready to fledge."

History of Dunedin Osprey Cam

According to the DunedinOspreyCam website:
This project began in December 2007.  The idea was to provide a bird’s eye view inside a Dunedin osprey nest to the public.  During the winter of 2008 – ’09 much progress was made on the project.  Tim Marshall established the original web page to help move the project forward.  Barbara Walker, who is very active in raptor conservation in Pinellas County, developed an osprey science project for 4th and 5th graders or for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.  The city obtained the necessary Florida state permits.

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