Osprey Tales

Harriett:

“Every evening, Monday-Friday, around 6 o’clock the Doctor gets home from work. The first thing he does is scan the backyard for bird activity. If he sees any, immediately he  picks up his camera, with the tripod and new fancy lens.   He makes his way towards the back porch of his giant nest and makes himself comfortable.  If the Female H. sapien is already home he kisses her on the way out. Sometimes  he doesn’t even change his clothes. He pulls down his neck tie and kicks off his shoes. Sometimes a glass of Seagrams 7 and Diet Coke miraculously joins him.”

“I watch him do it day after day.”

“Yesterday I had to laugh when the Doctor saw Ozzie waiting for him. He almost tripped and fell with camera, tripod, new lens and Seagrams 7, as he tried to scramble into position.

Marley and Cleo did not help.

At 5:58 PM the Doctor’s best friends comfortably awaited his arrival..

Marley and Cleo calmly wait for the Doctor to get home.

When the back door opened……..

“Arf! Pet me,” barked Marley.

Marley’s 75 pounds jumped, bumped and bounced off the Doctor.

“Arf, Arf!  Pet me!” Enjoined Cleo.

The two Canines competed for the Doctor’s attention.  Soon it was “hey, where’s my supper, as as opposed to, “pet me!, pet me!

“The photos he got Thursday evening are very nice. I hope he will share them with you.”

Lots of love,

Harriett

“It’s almost 6 o’clock,” said Harriett.

“So what,” replied Ozzie, feigning ignorance.

“We talked about this before!”  Harriett abruptly burst forth a disapproving vocalization.

“I want you to go down there and be neighborly.”

“Down where?” Ozzie stalled.

Harriett’s tolerance could no longer prevent the straw from breaking her back.

“In the marsh just behind the Doctor’s giant nest!”

Harriett tried in vain to contain her outrage. She felt a fleeting rush of anger towards her loved one.

“Well, I don’t want to,” was Ozzie’s untimely retort, making the situation worse.

Harriet turned to Ozzie and gave him one of her serious looks.

“It doesn’t matter if you want to or not. The Doctor has been good to us and we need to be neighborly.”

“Yeah, but I don’t feel like going right now.” Ozzie continues oblivious to Harriett’s outrage.

Ozzie did not read Harriett’s body language accurately.

“You are obstinate, self serving, unappreciative, and lacking in empathy! ”

Harriett unleashed her sentiments.

“When you’re a celebrity you have certain responsibilities to your friends.  Have not heard of H. sapiens William and Kate?  Well, they have it mastered. ”

“Since when am I a celebrity?  Ozzie continued to resist.

“Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie,” Harriet shook her head with exasperation.

“Ozzie, why do you underestimate yourself?  Look at yourself from the eyes of your H. sapien friends.  Who flies to or from South America twice a year?  Who has survived the cruel world of mother nature and come out on top?  Who found the North River and brought me here?  Who help me build this wonderful nest?  Who fought off that horrible Ivan the Terrible?  Who got me so excited I laid 3 eggs?  And who is the best fisherman of all time? Do I have to go on?”

Ozzie smiled and in perfect English said,

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Darn good looking bird,” said the Female H. sapien that lives with the Doctor, in his giant nest on the bank of the North River.

“I don’t know,” said Ozzie. “I don’t like them fooling around near our nest.”

“It’ll just be for a few minutes,” Harriet explained.  “Something is wrong with the camera and they need to figure it out.”

Ozzie cocked his head and glared at the Doctor’s giant nest on the bank of the North River.

“Are you sure we can trust them?”

This question made Harriett very angry.

“Trust the Doctor? I can’t believe you said that!”

Ozzie deflected his mate’s harsh words with detached indifference.

“If they start fooling around with our eggs,” Ozzie warned.  “I’ll come in with talons bared like you’ve never seen before.”

“Take it easy,” responded Harriet.  “The Doctor is our friend.”

10 AM Sunday morning

Tropical storm Ada.  This is what it looked like on channel 12 doppler radar:

Winds from the southwest; 45 mile-per-hour gust.  Horizontal rain.  Would you let your child go out and play under these conditions?

The A team arrives right on time. A few substitutions had to be made. The subs were the tough guys. Do not use the word “difficult” around them.

The Doctor walked them into his office.

“No link – flash, no link – flash, no link – flash,” screamed the monitor.

It gave the Doctor had a headache.

It gave the tough guys inspiration and motivation.

“Do not worry Doctor, we will be right back!”

Another rain band made itself known.  A curtain of water covered the Taj Mahal.

“Maybe we should give it a few more minutes,” said the Doctor.

He may as well have been talking to the Navy SEALs.

The A team’s movements were accurate and precise.

“Is that an Eye Chart?” Asked tough Guy # 1.  “That’s weird.”

“Well, it’s the Doctor, you know,” said tough guy # 2.

“Ah ha.”

“Ozzie and I gave them some distance. That’s not to say that Ozzie was not agitated throughout the entire procedure. At one point I thought he was going to attack tough guy # 2, but I talked him out of it thank goodness.

Meanwhile, the Doctor sat in his easy chair, in his giant nest and took pictures of the proceedings, while sipping on a Bloody Mary.

“Is this Absolute or Gray goose,” thought the Doctor.

Problem identified

The supposedly waterproof box containing the power converter for the coaxial cable is full water.

“I could’ve told you that,” said Harriett.

“Well, why didn’t you?” Asked the Doctor.

“Well, I thought you knew what you were doing when you put the camera up.”

The Doctor pursed his lips, then turned to the A team.

He shook hands with the tough guys and gave them knuckles.

“Just let us know if we can help further,” said tough guy #1 and #2.

The Doctor ordered a new power converter from Amazon and requested next day delivery.

“How about stopping by at 7 PM (low tide) on Wednesday evening?”

“No problema, see you then.”

Harriett Brooding

Attention!

Osprey friend number 163 has voiced an important concern.

Perhaps Harriett is using her telepathic and telekinetic powers to disable the camera on this Mother’s Day weekend. Perhaps she just wants a little privacy.

Harriett shows off her 3 eggs

The Doctor tried to contact Harriett regarding this matter. She did not respond to his thought transfer.

Now the Doctor is worried.

High tide behind the doctor’s giant nest

Those are very interesting facts you provided us regarding the Salt Marsh,” said the Doctor in a very happy and up beat thought transfer.

“Well, I’m glad you found them interesting. I have much, much more to tell you about the Salt Marsh, but Doctor, right now, I think you should talk to your Female H. sapien.

What?

Harriett had told the Female H. sapien, that lives with the Doctor in his giant nest on the bank of the North River, about the camera malfunction. She relayed this information to him in the most convenient and in the most harmonious manner possible.

“What?!” the Doctor repeated anxiously.

The Doctor jumped up in a huff and ran to his office to inspect his monitors.

“Dag gone it!” he mumbled to himself.  “NO LINK!“ Flashed at him fiendishly.

Flash – NO LINK! – Flash – NO LINK! – Flash – NO LINK!

The Doctor thanked OOO* he had a low seizure threshold.

The unhappy Doctor sent Cleo and Marley into the marsh to search for gremlins.

“There are none,” reported his trusty canines.

“It’s a technical glitch,” thought the Doctor.

I’ll be doggone if I’ll let a technical glitch interrupt our relationship,” he reassured Harriett.

“I know that,” she responded.

“Good OOO*, I love that Bird,” thought the Doctor.

And Harriett was still on-line.

*Omnipotent Omnipresent Omniscient

“It looks good, it smells good and it feels good.”

Harriett describes her home.

The Tidal Marsh or Salt Marsh, is the zone between land and open salt water that is regularly flooded by the tides.

“It’s a great place to live,” continued Harriett. The salt marsh provides everything an osprey could desire.

Not only does it buffer stormy seas, but it provides food and a home for all sorts of unimaginable life.

The saturated soils of the Salt Marsh are unique.
  

The soil of a Salt Marsh is composed of deep mud and peat. Peat is made of decomposing plant matter that is often several feet thick.  Every winter the salt marsh grasses die and add to the eons of waterlogged, root filled, spongy decomposing organic matter.   Anaerobic bacteria thrive, giving the marsh its unique aroma.

“I want to write about it,” said the Doctor.

“Not now,” directed Harriett.

Cord grass

Cord grass is an incredibly salt resistant plant that turns photosynthesis on its head.

“The Cord Grass,” the Doctor interjected. “I want to write about it.”

“Not now!” Harriett admonished.  “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I’m a little bit uncomfortable discussing Our Mission, especially after such an eventful homecoming. The challenges Ozzie and I have faced this year have been formidable. The Taj Mahal is certainly a comfortable and secure platform. It was nice to be well-established upon it when that awful Ivan the Terrible tried to destroy our home.

I am so proud of Ozzie. He certainly exemplifies “The size of the fight in the Osprey, versus the size of the Osprey in the fight.” He really kicked ###!. If you know what I mean. He has fully recovered from his injuries and he wears the scars like medals of honor. I think he is absolutely the greatest.

Ozzie understands that the Doctor and I have a Special Mission. He does not possess a full comprehension of our directive, but who really does?

To Save the World or at Least Life on Planet Earth as we Know it, is not a mission that Omnipotent Omnipresent Omniscient would assign to just any complex biological life forms.

We accept it, nonetheless.

“Doctor, come quick!” said the female H. sapien that lives with the Doctor, in his giant nest, on the bank of the North River.

The Doctor slowly turned in his bed. His low back and muscles argued, “this is a good position, let’s not try to move”.

But the Doctor sensed the excitement in the female H. sapien’s voice.

He looked at the little plastic box on his bed stand. The red digital LED (light-emitting diode) display showed 6:14 AM.

“What day is it?” Thought the Doctor.

It took several seconds for his mind to clear.

“Oh yes, it’s Saturday.”

A vague sense of happiness caressed him. The thought of no school on Saturday, as a child, was still there.

But, now; listen. The female H. sapien is calling. She would only call early on a Saturday for something special.

Something special

   Ozzie is proud too.  He feels like he deserves some of the credit.

“Hello Harriett,” transmitted the Doctor.

“Hello Doctor,” Harriett responded immediately. She was in the mood to exchange thoughts.

“What is that green stuff Ozzie has been dropping in all day?”

“Just green stuff,” thought Harriett. “It smells good.”

“At first I thought it might be a piece of cloth or something non-organic. I worry when Ozzie brings things to the nest that are not organic.”

“What do you mean? Like that piece of chicken wire /crab pot he brought in a couple days ago?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m talking about.”

“Don’t worry Doctor, as you can see I’ve pushed it aside and it is not a danger.”

“Okay, great, but I was wondering about that green stuff.”

“It is seaweed. What do you think it is?”

“Well truthfully, I wasn’t really sure. I didn’t think seaweed looks like that.”

“Well, that’s what’s it is,” said Harriett.  “It has a nice aroma.”

Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous (egg-laying) animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. The act of sitting on eggs to incubate them is called brooding.

It is body heat from the brooding parent that provides the constant temperature.

In the species that incubate, the work is divided differently between the sexes.

The incubation period for the osprey egg averages 38 – 39 days.

Some Avian species begin incubation with the first egg, causing the young to hatch at different times.  Some start to incubate after the last egg of the clutch, causing the young to hatch simultaneously. We osprey start incubating our 1st egg immediately.