Layla

I always worry about tagged young until we see them settled back down on their nests. If we didn't have a cam on this nest, I would have just waited patiently to get the next data. But there was a camera and no signs of Layla, so I fretted until I saw her come in late on the afternoon of the 24th, 3 days after we tagged her. Her nest mates were just finishing the fish they'd been feeding on when she flew in. Big sigh of relief!

It was so hot that we were concerned about her overheating and so rushed her processing as much as possible. This meant that we didn't take time to get a mug shot of her. So we'll have to settle for the screen-grab I got from her nest cam.

Bio

Layla is a young female tagged at her nest on the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. She was named by some campers from the Barry Farm Summer Camp, who came to the Earth Conservation Corps (sponsors of the transmitter) to learn about Ospreys. Layla was one of the campers who successfully lobbied for the bird to be named after herself. As she (the camper) left the ECC, she proclaimed that when she grew up, she was coming back to run the ECC! They start early in DC.

For the first three days, Layla (the bird) was proving a bit mysterious and nerve-wracking. We set our noose trap, baited with a nice trout, at a nest where we trapped an adult male (Ron Harper) back in 2013. About 40 minutes later a young bird landed on a perch overlooking the nest. She spent an hour or so preening and looking down at the nest. Then an adult landed on another perch over the nest. The young began begging for the adult to feed her. She did that for three hours. Finally, she hopped down to the nest and was quickly caught.

What was perplexing, and worrisome, was that three days later, she hadn't been seen back on the nest. Two other young were getting very well fed by their parents. but no sign of Layla. We got data from her transmitter on the 23rd showing her hanging out about 3.5 miles up the river the day after she was tagged. I don't think she's catching her own fish yet. One explanation was that she's a young from another nest and was getting fed there. It wouldn't be the first time we trapped a young that was born at a nest near the one where we were trapping. As some may remember, our New Hampshire bird, Lizzie, left her nest and settled down for 10 days at a nest in Rhode Island. Had we set up to trap there, we would have caught a bird born in New Hampshire and never known it!

21 July-5 August

Layla made her first big trip away from home (about 25 miles) on July 24th. This was a day trip. On the 1st of August she had her first sleep-over, spending the night near the western shore of Chesapeake Bay

5-15 August

On August 6th, Layla packed her bags and left home, almost certainly for good. On the 16th she was in Ohio, almost 240 miles (390 km) from her nest on the Anacostia River in Washington, DC.