Nearing the end

[Grace Scalzo]

This is the oystercatcher chick that Artie photographed and wrote about last weekend. As you can see, he is weak and exhausted. He is not being fed by his parents and they are rejecting him at this point to give their attention to the other two. Like in Joe's image, it is not easy to understand or observe. Haunting to say the least.

1/500, f 5.6, ISO800
Canon mk4, 500 f4 + 1/4tc + lowered tripod

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Very sad indeed. It is hard for us sometimes to understand the choices the parents make. From an evolutionary standpoint, it must be beneficial in the long run, or the behaviour wouldn't persist, but it is very difficult to accept when you see the cost.

The framing here really strengthens your message.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

This makes me wonder if OCs ever raise more than two chicks. Do they maybe just keep the two strongest chicks?

[Randy Stout]

Axel:
I know that loons often hatch two chicks, but often only one survives. The parents selectively feed the older, stronger one. This apparently is esp. true if food supply is limited. There is more chance of getting at least one chick to survive this way. The chick in the loon picture I just posted had a sibling, but it didn't last more than a couple of days. Could have been predation, but for some reason the adults were ignoring both of them early on, then started stuffing this one.

Randy

[Alan Murphy]

Beautifully done Grace. The large neg space is perfect for your story.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Another fine image from you. Sad story , but nature can be cruel , as we all have seen from time to time.

[LouBuonomo]

What Alan said.. watched him for a while today I fear the end is near.

[Lana Hays]

Grace
Sad.....but sometimes nature is cruel. Love the story and the lighting, composition and pose all make for an interesting image.

[rajivsarathy]

In his blog, Art wrote that he picked up the chick and deposited it near its parents. Who can blame him? I think a couple of things could have happened:

1) during the attack, the chick may have lost some ability (e.g., communicating to its parent, grabbing food, etc.); or
2) Art's smell is now on the chick and the parents want nothing to do with it. I don't know about birds, but I know that some animals (e.g., some rabbits) will shun offspring that have had human contact.

Just a couple of theories. I'm not a biologist and know much less about birds and animals than most of you. Just guessing (and not blaming Art one bit).

[Bob Pelkey]

The crop lends well to the condition of the bird. Research (Sibley) indicates that the young oystercatcher learns foraging characteristics from its parents. This bird may have missed an all important critical meal that would offer it survival. Or there could be a less than ideal food resource for the birds at the nesting location. As this bird is potentially the third hatched juvenile, the adults may also be accustomed to rearing two young produced in preceding breeding years and are behaving as conditioned or otherwise.

[Grace Scalzo]

Rajivsarathy, Believe me, I'm not blaming Artie one bit either. I would have done the same thing, were I in his shoes.
I did a little reading on this when I can home and it seems to be common for parents to abandon the weakest one and focus on the ones with the best chance of survival. As I think back over the o/c families that I have observed, I do not recall any with more than two surviving chicks, altho this is anecdotal. I think this one was doomed before any interaction with humans occurred. None-the-less, I hope that I told his story well with my image.

[Jim Fenton]

Sad for sure but it is nature.

This image does a great justice to this little ones short time before it returns to the earth.

Defi9netly a moving image Grace.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

In his blog, Art wrote that he picked up the chick and deposited it near its parents. Who can blame him? I think a couple of things could have happened:

1) during the attack, the chick may have lost some ability (e.g., communicating to its parent, grabbing food, etc.); or
2) Art's smell is now on the chick and the parents want nothing to do with it. I don't know about birds, but I know that some animals (e.g., some rabbits) will shun offspring that have had human contact.

Just a couple of theories. I'm not a biologist and know much less about birds and animals than most of you. Just guessing (and not blaming Art one bit).

Most birds (aside from vultures and such) don't have a good sense of smell. This is why you can put chicks back in the nest without problems.

[Jim Fenton]

Birds abandoning chicks due to being handled by hu8mans is a total fallacy.

Just think what would happen to all of the young eagles, ospreys, hawks, owls tern chicks, etc which are handled / banded every year if nit were true.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Really sad, perfect framing for this cruel fate.

[rajivsarathy]

Grace - I wasn't suggesting that you were. I was just apologizing in advance in case others thought that I was blaming him (or anyone else). As I said, I'm not a biologist and know very little about birds. I just started taking photos of birds very recently as a hobby (previously bigger game and not very good at that either) and hope to learn from you all.

Great image, by the way.

[Morkel Erasmus]

great evocative image Grace...sad story and your compo with dead space fits perfectly...

[Hendri Venter]

Yip, thats nature and will always be sad. Still a very nice image and me too like the space.