EcoTravel E-Ventures: Checking the Osprey Nests in Old Saybrook

July 7, 2020 — Ospreys arrive back in Connecticut in March and eggs start to hatch by early June. But not all nests are on the same schedule.

You can see the difference in the age of young birds in different nests in this video by EcoTravel Director Andy Griswold. In late June, Andy visited the marsh in Old Saybrook that he and volunteer Sandy Sanstrom call the “Osprey Garden.” (Their previous video report was from early June, just before eggs hatched.)

Andy says that young Ospreys will start to leave the nest at around eight weeks old, but will perch on the edge of the nest to test their wings when they’re as young as five week old. That should be soon for the bigger birds in the video, and also for the nestlings at Milford Point, which hatched on June 7 and 10.

Watch the video and then check out the babies at Milford Point on our Osprey Cam, for a size comparison.