Updated: 4:20 p.m. June 21, 2023 | See below!
Hooray! Two chicks have hatched from their eggs under the gaze of the Arboretum’s live osprey cam. As of this writing, the two chicks appear to be eating and interacting with their parents.
One egg remains, so we're watching with diminishing expectations of a third chick, and awaiting word from our expert at The Raptor Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
This year, the parent osprey arrived in mid-April, laid eggs in mid-May and now, in late June, have chicks, withstanding high temperatures and wind gusts, too.
The chicks are already eating a steady diet. Soon, they'll be exercising their wings while sitting in the nest, learning preening techniques from their parents and quickly growing up and learning to fish on their own.
Since not even half of juvenile ospreys are expected to survive into adulthood, it is definitely a journey that requires hope from spectators.
Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Lori Arent, the Assistant Director of The Raptor Center, says there's still hope for a third chick.
She said: "Like most raptors, osprey do not lay their eggs all at the same time. The eggs are laid 1-2 days apart. Many osprey start incubating their eggs in earnest after the second egg is laid. So, since it takes the same amount of time for an embryo to develop in an egg, the eggs do not all hatch at the same time. This is called asynchronous hatching. If the unhatched egg was laid two days after the second egg and does not hatch by tomorrow, it more than likely will not."