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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - They've been called the Chesapeake's newest and most popular reality TV stars. Online viewers in 60 countries have watched the lives of Tom and Audrey Osprey, and the last few months have been quite dramatic. The Chesapeake Conservancy's Osprey Cam has provided real-time coverage as the avian couple built a nest, mated and laid eggs on their perch on the Bay.
According to Chesapeake Conservancy director Joel Dunn, it's been painful for some viewers to watch the nest lately, because the youngest chick seems to be struggling.
"Audrey tends to give more fish to the older chicks because they're louder, they're larger, and they can push their way to the front."
Dunn said there are no plans to intervene.
Dunn said Audrey and Tom will be here fishing and feeding their chicks for the summer. Then they head south in September. But, he added, they'll be back.
"Every Saint Patrick's Day they come back to the same nest," he declared. "And they mate for life, so that same couple will be back next year after a stint down in the tropics."
Dunn said ospreys have made an amazing rebound in the Bay since the 1950s and '60s when the chemical DDT caused severe population declines.
A link to Osprey Cam is at ChesapeakeConservancy.org.
