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There were lots of bees and wasps on the sunny side of a fountain. I presume they were eating the algae that was growing at the edge of the water rather than drinking the water. Thanks for your comments - so they are drinking the water then.
August 2016
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Trichotillomania. What does the name mean to you? How about trich, TTM, or a trichster? Well, this photo is about Trichotillomania.
Trichotillomania is a Hair Pulling Disorder. It is classified as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). A ‘trichster’ is a person who feels the urge to pull his or her hair. If you are having hard time imaging the behaviour of Trichotillomania, then think about it as nail biting or finger cracking kind of habit. Trichsters usually don’t just pull out all their hair, rather they do it systematically one hair at a time; just like nail biting: one nail at a time.
Majority of people start pulling their hair around the age of 13 or 14, and for most they never stop. As you have probably guessed, there aren’t any chemical medications that can cure this disorder. I think there are some behavioural treatments, etc., but I can’t say much about the treatments for trich since I am not familiar with any of them. A trichster may pull one’s hair knowingly or do it automatically without giving it much thought. It is also has been noted that trichotillomania could be hereditary.
When I was around 13 years of age, that was back home (in Iraq), I went to the barber to get a hair cut. That barber was someone I knew from the neighbourhood and he was a very talented hair stylist. He was actually a very good artist who displayed his pencil drawings in his barber shop, and I used to love going through his drawings books. When I came home I looked in the mirror and saw few hairs on top of my forehead that were dangling down like it usually happens after a routine haircut and before taking a shower. I decided that they were out of place and I pulled them out—I think they were 3 to 5 hairs—and I never stopped pulling my hair until today.
You are probably wondering: that’s it? That’s how it started? Yep. And I haven’t been able to break free from it for over a dozen of years now, or had relief from it, because it is always there in one way or another.
As it turned out that both my dad and mom’s families pull their hair in a way or another. And as it happened it has almost affected the men only.
Living with trich is not fun, just like living with any addiction, or anything for that matter that controls you. And living with trich in an eastern country is even worse.
I don’t know why I took this photo or talking about trich because I have never talked to anybody about it in a personal way. Yes, family members and close people know that I pull my hair, but I had never actually talked about it to anyone except my best friend, Jesus Christ. And believe me He is more than enough. I think I took it for all the people who have trich out there and want to hear about it from others. Hearing about others’ experiences is good because we know we are not alone in what we are facing.
I’ve never talked to anybody about it for many reasons: 1) I don’t have anybody that close to me to open up to them. 2) The people that are close to me are either not interested in hearing about it, or don’t share my beliefs (at all). 3) People are scared when you talk to them about things they don’t know…and yes sadly, we, Christians more so than others.
Jesus touched the poor, the beggars, the sick, and the homeless; we, on the other hand, simply run away from them, or give them a shower before we touch them. With hearts like ours no wonder we are scared to get dirty, because our hearts are already dirty. When our Lord Jesus Christ touched the unclean He did not become unclean, but the unclean became clean. Also when Jesus healed people He made them stand up, not vice versa. (It was the demons who threw people down.) Sometimes I think I don’t deserve the title “follower of Jesus Christ”. Yes, obeying Him is very important to me, and yes I strive to live for Him and to be confirmed to His likeness. But to follow in His footsteps is a whole new level of spiritual maturity, and understanding of who He is in a much deeper and personal way. Let me ask you a quick question: how did you picture this next spiritual level, a higher step on a ladder? Well, it is not. It is stooping down to washing the feet of one person, where there is nobody else other than the two of you, on the most isolated place on earth—a person who you don’t agree with on anything.
Let me give you some little stories about trich and me. Early on when I got trich I used to mainly pull the hair of my scalp, and so one day when I went to high school a class mate (that is still back home) saw the missing hair batches and commented (not in a sarcastic, or unfriendly way, he just made a comment) saying, “You need to change your barber.” I quickly responded, “It is not his fault; I pull my hair out.” Now why is this incident important? Because my response is pretty much my attitude toward trich: it is nobody’s fault, and I have never blamed anybody for it. This is very important, because as destructive as an addictive habit can get, its negative effects won’t be even comparable to bitterness, unforgiveness, and hostility.
On of the saddest incidents with trich happened when I carried the little boy of a relative and he started crying as babies usually do with people they are not familiar with. His mom quickly came and took him from me saying in an angry voice, “Of course he will cry when you look like this without eyebrows or eyelashes!” I was shocked when she said that—shocked that someone can say something like that. I quietly went upstairs to my room, and sat down thinking about what she said. Then I thanked God that I had trich, because I realized that if I didn’t have trich then I could’ve very easily one day say something like this to some one suffering from trich. I’d rather be wronged by others than be the one who wrongs others. I realized I am a human like her, and if she could say something like this, I can say it too.
Almost all of my extended family has settled in another country many years ago except one close family who were living back home as us. The mother of that close family used to always mention to me that I pull my hair. She didn’t have bad motives or anything, but she didn’t pass an opportunity without reminding me that I pull my hair out. (Believe me if someone has trich you don’t need to remind them, because mirrors do a very good job at it.) Years passed by and my family and hers left the country and went to settle in different parts of the world. They joined their son, who they haven’t seen for many years, in a European country. However, last year she came to visit us and we were very happy to see her because she was like a second mother to us back home. I was waiting for her to mention that I pull my hair, but for the first few days she didn’t say anything. And somehow I felt she didn’t say anything for reasons other than just being thoughtful towards me. After few days she said, “You know, my son pulls his eyebrows too.” When she said that I had a very strange feeling, may be because I had hoped inside that she was not mentioning that I pull my hair because she finally realized I have feelings.
There are other little experiences I’ve had with trich but I won’t share them because some are really personal to me, and also I don’t want to make the description extremely long. However, there are few things I would like to share with you to may be help you understand people with Trichotillomania better:
1) People who pull their hair are not insane. The get education, they make friends, they work and they get married, etc.
2) People who pull their hair know that, so please don’t remind them.
3) People who pull their hair don’t need you to “fix them”, that position is for Jesus only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4) People who pull their hair are very sensitive about their looks, so don’t force them to take photos, or put them on stage, etc.
5) If God has not told you personally that He will heal that person don’t just go marching to them promising them something God has not promised.
6) Trichotillomania is not a transmittable disease, and it doesn’t make a person dirty and slothful.
7) It is ok to touch or play with someone’s hair if they have Trichotillomania: nothing will break, fall, or explode! But make sure you know the person very well, and are close to them, and ask permission first!
8) If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. And certainly don’t give this advice, “Just stop doing it”. As if the person has not thought or tried to do so! It is like telling a person who is struggling with addiction to drugs, “Just stop taking it.” And also don’t give this advice, “You shouldn’t pull your hair out.” Sometimes it seems a piece of advice is the cheapest thing people can give.
(Here I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I believe that people rarely say things with the motives of hurting others, and if that's their motive they are rarely aware of it. But you see people who are struggling with trich, overweight, low self-esteem, etc, are very sensitive in regard to those issues. So even a seemingly innocent comment can be very hurtful and be received as thoughtless. I myself am guilty of saying more thoughtless things than anybody else I know, and that’s not ok. And let's not forget that people hurt others because they are hurt. People who put others down are usually covering their own hurt of being made to feel “not good enough” by lowering some else’s self-esteem. Let’s not forget that the God who loves us and is helping us also loves those who hurt us and is so yearning to help them out of their spiritual and emotional graves just like He did and is doing in us.)
9) Don’t tell a trichster that Trichotillomania is a sin against God and one’s body and that he or she is living in deliberate disobedience, unless: 1-You can heal them. 2-God told you that trich is a sin and that He sent you to convict them of their sin.
(I know Trich makes one’s life less than ideal from human perspective, but I also know that people through out the scripture struggled with long term sickness, pain, lose, depression, life long enemies, deportation and unjustifiable trials. None of these make a life ideal from a human perspective, but God has allowed them. God didn’t promise us a Rose Garden—He actually told us to carry our cross and follow Him, and a sword, if we choose to follow Him, between us and our closest family members—but He did promise, grace, peace, and strength through trials. I don’t know where this “Christian” mindset in North America came from that says God has promised us: paid houses, two cars for each family, a promotion every six months, and a healthy family for life, and if that’s not the case then as soon as we pray God answers our prayers exactly as we asked and no matter what we asked! He is our Father indeed, but let’s not forget that He is still God of Gods and Lord of Lords. He is the one in absolute control, not us. He is the one who knows what is best for us, not us—and that’s what makes Him our Perfect Father.)
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10) Whatever you do, don’t make fun of a person with trichotillomania.
Of course those may not apply to everyone, but I would say generally they hold true.
If you tell me that I have the power now to heal myself from trich with all of its effects, would I do it? Well, if I have that power I would give it back to Jesus where it belongs and let Him decide when He sees fit. Mind you that does not mean I love wearing a baseball hat to everywhere I go, or that I like not having a decent photo with my nephew or niece whom I adore, or I enjoy the fact that taking a photograph for a passport, or driving licence, etc, is a dreadful experience to me—but no matter how hard it is, God has allowed it, and He has His purposes and I am not going to oppose His work in my life, whether I understand it or not.
Actually the only photo of me that I like, other than my baby pictures, is the one I took right before I had trich. As I mentioned earlier, I think I was 12 or 13 at the time. I might upload it to my flickr account, I don’t know, I will see. I used to like it before because it was the Before Trich part of my life, and now I am living in the After Trich part. But thanks to Jesus all lives are divided by either Before Christ or After Christ. And I am so glad that I have chosen the After Christ life :)
Of course, I could go on and on about trich and its effect on a person, but I think any website about trich will give you a better description of what a person goes through. I could probably write a book about the last dozen years of trich and me!
I would like to add that when I count my blessings, trich is actually nothing. After all hair grows back! And even if it doesn’t, this body is only my home for some years, not like the body Jesus has prepared for me that I will be living in for countless years. There are people who have lost limbs, paralyzed, lost sight, or loved ones—what is the lose of hair in comparison to losing someone you truly cherish?
So no, trichotillomania is not the most painful thing ever happened to me, but God has used it to draw me closer to Him. To teach me to be sensitive to other people’s needs, and to sense when someone is hurt, broken-hearted, needs someone to talk to. God has used it to help me watch over the words of my mouth, and to be kind and gentle (still a long way to go in this area). God has taught me what it means to be comforted, and I hope that I can comfort others too.
If you are wondering why I have not tried any treatment…well this is kind of a confusing point for most but let me explain as best as I know. Trich is a spiritual blessing. You see through it God has been confirming me to the likeness of His Son more and more. So I would rather it stay and I change to be more like Jesus than it goes and I stop growing in my character. Does it make sense? Yes, no? Believe me, trials and pain are the most effective tools to shape us for eternity—and God is like a skilled surgeon who knows how to use them, when, and how much to apply.
I am not saying that God sends pains on purpose to make us hurt, but He does test our faith and sends us through trials. (Please do not confuse trials with temptations, because God absolutely hates sin and will never tempt us to do so.) And if we are going through something that was not His perfect will for us, He still would have had to allow it to happen, and so He knows about and we can ask Him and allow Him to work in us to shape us through whatever we are going through.
Also the way humans heal does not build our faith, however when God heals we know it is Him and so our faith grows, He gets the credit and the honour and the glory, and hopefully others will witness and believe in Him.
Will God ever heal me while I am on earth? I don’t know. Do I care? Yes, I do. Will it stop me from following Him, or trusting Him? No, it won’t. Do I want to be healed from it? I want His will whatever it is.
2 Corinthians 1:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
I just want to add this one thing. Recently I have been having this feeling that even though God desires to make us more like Jesus through our sicknesses and trials, He sometimes just wants to heal us because He is good. I mean, patience is good, so is also growing our character in Christ, and being more humble. Yet, I am wondering if we use those as excuses to cover up our little faith in His goodness and desire to heal us. I am just feeling that God sometimes doesn’t want to teach us more than the fact He loves us, and wants to take away our sicknesses because He is a merciful and compassionate Father. And to come to this understanding of His goodness and to see Him as a loving heavenly Father seems even a bigger spiritual step than trying to figure out what His other spiritual purposes are behind our sicknesses. Just something to think about.
PS: I really love the English language, however it is not my language of origin, and so I am always striving to master it more and more. So if you find any spelling mistakes, wrong use of words, wrong grammar, etc, feel free to let me know :) Any feedback will be much appreciated :)
(Toronto, ON; winter 2008.)
too much accomplishes little
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
link to original: flickr.com/photos/31747118@N08/3287611673/in/set-72157613...
taken on the canal path in Rotherham a newly emerged queen bumblebee breeding with a much smaller drone. .
'It ain't half Hot'. Early morning, with the dew still on the grass, a male Blackbird sunbathing with his feathers all fluffed out and losing heat through his gape. West Yorkshire.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages ...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
‘Sunbathing’ is used by some birds as part of their routine feather maintenance and is most commonly seen by Garden BirdWatchers in Blackbirds and Robins. The birds invariably adopt a posture in which the body feathers are fluffed up and one or both wings are held out from the body, with feathers spread. It is thought that using the sun in this way does two things. It both helps the preen oil to spread across the feathers and drives parasites out from within the plumage. Some of these parasites feed on the feathers themselves and all are highly specialised, with many only found on a single species of bird.
The plumage of a bird is important, providing both insulation and flight, and individual birds spend a significant amount of time looking after their feathers. In Bird Table 59, there was an article on moult, and moult is clearly an important component of feather maintenance, with worn-out feathers replaced by new ones as part of a regular cycle. More routine maintenance happens on a daily basis and involves a combination of preening and bathing.
Preening involves manipulating individual feathers with the bill, often realigning the filaments that hook together to hold the feather in shape. Watch a Blackbird doing this in your garden and you will soon see how the bird works each feather in turn, carefully ‘nibbling’ the feather. Some species indulge in mutual preening; known as ‘allopreening’ this is usually seen in birds that are paired, the preening behaviour thought to strengthen the pair bond.
Most birds also indulge in bathing, either using water or dust/sand to clean the feathers. A garden bird bath can be a real draw in the hot summer months and it is worth watching how the different species bathe. Most stand in the water, often thrusting down and forward with their head to force water up onto their back. The aim is not to completely soak the plumage but to wet it sufficiently so that the plumage can be cleaned. Other birds will ‘shower’ by using the dew or raindrops that collect on vegetation, again wetting but not soaking the plumage.
Dust-bathing is less common in garden-visiting birds than water-bathing and is more often associated with species that live in dry habitats or in open landscapes. House Sparrows, pheasants and partridges, however, are very fond of dust-bathing, reflecting their dry-country origins and may be seen engaging in this as a communal activity. House Sparrows, in particular, work the dust into their plumage by using flicking movements of the wings.
(BTO Notes)
My friend Bill Kominsky asked about the lack of the fish head when the male osprey brings a fish. First, they don't always take the head off - see image in first comment. Second, ospreys always start eating a fish by tearing at its mouth. The male's strong instinct is to catch a fish and eat straight away. When it eats some fish before it's delivered, the head is missing. It's as simple as that. Although this behaviour serves to protect the nest it isn't done for that reason or else it wouldn't deliver whole fish to the nest at all.
At Chester Zoo
My first proper outing with the 50-140mm on the xt1 after the latest firmware upgrade
ISO 6400
f/2.8
1/80 with image stabilisation
edited in Lightroom
used my Mind the Scrap May kit to create this grid style page for todays LOAD prompt.
Used photos of my daughter on stage with Nutty Noah and told the story of how she was better than expected and did exactly as she was told even when he didnt want her too lol
The breezy conditions made catching any fish difficult, but at least there was no shortage of insects for these Common Terns to feed on.
A pair of jackdaws kept coming to a nest box and dropping in lumps of dried mud. Eventually the chicks were on a thick layer of dried mud and the jackdaws could reach in the hole and get them.
Photographed on at Puerto Egas on Santiago Island, Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Day 4 of the Galápagos trip
These beautifully-colored crabs stood out dramatically against the black volcanic reefs upon which they were seen. Naturally, this being the Galápagos, where wildlife is protected and one is cautioned to keep a distance from the birds and animals, I had no reason to understand where they may have gotten the nickname, "Sally Lightfoot". But the comments from Wikipedia below, apparently made by John Steinbeck, gives clarity to the name. :-)
=======================
From Wikipedia:
Ecology and behaviour-
This crab lives amongst the rocks at the often turbulent, windy shore, just above the limit of the sea spray. It feeds on algae primarily, sometimes sampling other plant matter and dead animals. It is an agile crab, capable of leaping, and consequently hard to catch. Not considered very edible by humans, it is used as bait by fishermen. It is preyed upon by the Chain moray eel Echidna catenata.
G. grapsus has been observed in an apparent cleaning symbiosis taking ticks from marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands.
Grapsus grapsus was collected by Charles Darwin during his voyages on HMS Beagle, and also by the first comprehensive study of the fauna of the Gulf of California, carried out by Ed Ricketts, together with John Steinbeck and others. Steinbeck records:
Many people have spoken at length of the Sally Lightfoots. In fact, everyone who has seen them has been delighted with them. The very name they are called by reflects the delight of the name. These little crabs, with brilliant cloisonné carapaces, walk on their tiptoes, They have remarkable eyes and an extremely fast reaction time. In spite of the fact that they swarm on the rocks at the Cape [San Lucas], and to a less degree inside the Gulf [of California], they are exceedingly hard to catch. They seem to be able to run in any of four directions; but more than this, perhaps because of their rapid reaction time, they appear to read the mind of their hunter. They escape the long-handled net, anticipating from what direction it is coming. If you walk slowly, they move slowly ahead of you in droves. If you hurry, they hurry. When you plunge at them, they seem to disappear in a puff of blue smoke—at any rate, they disappear. It is impossible to creep up on them. They are very beautiful, with clear brilliant colors, red and blues and warm browns.
…
Man reacts peculiarly but consistently in his relationship with Sally Lightfoot. His tendency eventually is to scream curses, to hurl himself at them, and to come up foaming with rage and bruised all over his chest. Thus, Tiny, leaping forward, slipped and fell and hurt his arm. He never forgot nor forgave his enemy. From then on he attacked Lightfoots by every foul means he could contrive and a training in Monterey street fighting has equipped him well for this kind of battle). He hurled rocks at them; he smashed at them with boards; and he even considered poisoning them. Eventually we did catch a few Sallys, but we think they were the halt and the blind, the simpletons of their species. With reasonably well-balanced and non-neurotic Lightfoots we stood no chance.
AB2A2116-1_fC1AFlkr
If you're having a bad day, spare a thought for the unfortunate little Bullhead that's about to be "brunch" for this Dipper (which is having a rather good day as far as food is concerned)... :-)
The osprey or more specifically the western osprey (Pandion haliaetus) — also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk — is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.
The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.
As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. Three subspecies are usually recognized; one of the former subspecies, cristatus, has recently been given full species status and is referred to as the eastern osprey.
The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide. Even the few subspecies are not unequivocally separable. There are four generally recognised subspecies, although differences are small, and ITIS lists only the first two.
The osprey is 0.9–2.1 kg (2.0–4.6 lb) in weight and 50–66 cm (20–26 in) in length with a 127–180 cm (50–71 in) wingspan. It is, thus, of similar size to the largest members of the Buteo or Falco genera. The subspecies are fairly close in size, with the nominate subspecies averaging 1.53 kg (3.4 lb), P. h. carolinensis averaging 1.7 kg (3.7 lb) and P. h. cristatus averaging 1.25 kg (2.8 lb). The wing chord measures 38 to 52 cm (15 to 20 in), the tail measures 16.5 to 24 cm (6.5 to 9.4 in) and the tarsus is 5.2–6.6 cm (2.0–2.6 in).
The upperparts are a deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white. The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck. The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue. The bill is black, with a blue cere, and the feet are white with black talons. A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, finger-like feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance.
In flight, Northern Territory, Australia
The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings. The breast band of the male is also weaker than that of the female, or is non-existent, and the underwing coverts of the male are more uniformly pale. It is straightforward to determine the sex in a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds.
The juvenile osprey may be identified by buff fringes to the plumage of the upperparts, a buff tone to the underparts, and streaked feathers on the head. During spring, barring on the underwings and flight feathers is a better indicator of a young bird, due to wear on the upperparts.
In flight, the osprey has arched wings and drooping "hands", giving it a gull-like appearance. The call is a series of sharp whistles, described as cheep, cheep or yewk, yewk. If disturbed by activity near the nest, the call is a frenzied cheereek
he osprey is piscivorous, with fish making up 99% of its diet. It typically takes fish weighing 150–300 g (5.3–10.6 oz) and about 25–35 cm (9.8–13.8 in) in length, but the weight can range from 50 g (1.8 oz) to 2 kg (4.4 lb). Virtually any type of fish in that size range are taken.
Ospreys have vision that is well adapted to detecting underwater objects from the air. Prey is first sighted when the osprey is 10–40 m (33–131 ft) above the water, after which the bird hovers momentarily then plunges feet first into the water.
Occasionally, the osprey may prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other birds, and small reptiles.
The osprey has several adaptations that suit its piscivorous lifestyle:
reversible outer toes
sharp spicules on the underside of the toes
closable nostrils to keep out water during dives
backwards-facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help hold its catch
dense plumage which is oily and prevents its feathers from getting waterlogged.
The osprey breeds near freshwater lakes and rivers, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters. Rocky outcrops just offshore are used in Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia, where there are 14 or so similar nesting sites of which five to seven are used in any one year. Many are renovated each season, and some have been used for 70 years. The nest is a large heap of sticks, driftwood, turf or seaweed built in forks of trees, rocky outcrops, utility poles, artificial platforms or offshore islets. As wide as 2 meters and weighing about 135 kg, large nests on utility poles may be fire hazards and have caused power outages.
Generally, ospreys reach sexual maturity and begin breeding around the age of three to four, though in some regions with high osprey densities, such as Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., they may not start breeding until five to seven years old, and there may be a shortage of suitable tall structures. If there are no nesting sites available, young ospreys may be forced to delay breeding. To ease this problem, posts are sometimes erected to provide more sites suitable for nest building. In some regions ospreys prefer transmission towers as nesting sites, e.g. in East Germany.
Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden
The platform design developed by one organization, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. has become the official design of the State of New Jersey, U.S. The platform plans and materials list, available online, have been utilized by people from a number of different geographical regions. Osprey-watch.org is the global site for mapping osprey nest locations and logging observations on reproductive success.
Ospreys usually mate for life. Rarely, polyandry has been recorded. The breeding season varies according to latitude; spring (September–October) in southern Australia, April to July in northern Australia and winter (June–August) in southern Queensland. In spring the pair begins a five-month period of partnership to raise their young. The female lays two to four eggs within a month, and relies on the size of the nest to conserve heat. The eggs are whitish with bold splotches of reddish-brown and are about 6.2 cm × 4.5 cm (2.4 in × 1.8 in) and weigh about 65 g (2.3 oz). The eggs are incubated for about 35–43 days to hatching.
The newly hatched chicks weigh only 50–60 g (1.8–2.1 oz), but fledge in 8–10 weeks. A study on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, had an average time between hatching and fledging of 69 days. The same study found an average of 0.66 young fledged per year per occupied territory, and 0.92 young fledged per year per active nest. Some 22% of surviving young either remained on the island or returned at maturity to join the breeding population. When food is scarce, the first chicks to hatch are most likely to survive. The typical lifespan is 7–10 years, though rarely individuals can grow to as old as 20–25 years.
The oldest European wild osprey on record lived to be over thirty years of age. In North America, great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are the only major predators of ospreys, capable of taking both nestlings and adults. However, kleptoparasitism by bald eagles, where the larger raptor steals the osprey's catch, is more common than predation. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), which is very similar to the bald eagle, may harass or prey on the osprey in Eurasia. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) can be a serious threat to nestlings or eggs if they can access the nest. Endoparasitic trematodes (Scaphanocephalus expansus and Neodiplostomum spp.) have been recorded in wild ospreys.
from Wikipedia