Osprey Tales

The Doctor had “BEGINNER” written across his forehead. He ran to the bathroom mirror to see if it was so; and it was so. Like a flashing strobe light, it hurt the Doctor’s eyes, and you know he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.  In fact, it was a terrible embarrassment and troubled him very much.

He tried wrinkling his forehead, tilting his head at different angles and changing facial expressions. Nothing could diminish the stigma. It was like a skin lesion that is diagnostic of a sinister disease, and it was there for any and all to see.

One day, Zeus got tired of the Doctor’s timidity.

“DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!” Thundered Omnipresent Omnipotent Omniscience. (Triple O to Her friends……. The British like to call Her Double O Zero). A lightning bolt slammed into the ground not 20 yards from the Doctor’s giant nest on the North River.

It frightened the Doctor very much. He didn’t know what to do. But then miraculously as if his guardian angel were there, a soothing, reassuring voice whispered into his left ear. It was from Lieutenant General Ring.  “It’s in Watson’s book, Play of the Hand, the voice whispered.

“Oh, thank goodness,” thought the Doctor. “A place to start.”

“Come on to bed now,” call the female H. Sapien that lives with him in his giant nest on the North River.  “We both had big days ahead of us tomorrow.”

The Doctor got up, but the draw of Watson’s book was too powerful.  It pulled him back into his office and sat him down at his desk.

“Squawk,” I screamed at him with all my telepathic strength. “What’s more important, your work or this card game you play?”

I waited for a long time, but there was no answer.

Very concerned,

Harriett

Raptors use a wide variety of killing strategies, including a few rather grisly ones. Some raptors use their talons to attack with high-speed killing blows, while others suffocate their prey to death in a constricting grip. Some give their victims the merciful death of a broken neck, but others eat their victims alive after slashing them open.

The diurnal birds of prey:

Falcons

Hawks, eagles, buzzards, harriers, kites

Osprey

Secretarybird

All raptors use their talons in a similar way when tackling small prey; their feet imprison the victim, with talons deployed as a cage rather than as weapons. Falcons then use a notched ridge on their upper beak to sever the spine or crush the head, while owls sometimes break their prey’s neck with a swift twist.

Falcons

 Eagles

Accipitrids (eagles, hawks, kites, harriers, and the like) have weaker bites than falcons so they use their feet to constrict their prey, cutting off the air supply much like pythons use their coils.

Owls

Because owls tend to ambush their prey on the ground, their chances of landing a killing blow are slimmer. Their feet have evolved to better restrain struggling prey. Their toes are shorter and stronger than those of other raptors. One toe can swivel backward to join another so the owl can grip with two pairs of opposing talons. That makes them powerful constrictors, capable of crushing small animals in a suffocating “fist.” It also means they specialize in smaller victims, rarely tackling the larger prey that falcons and eagles hunt.

Ospery

The osprey differs in several respects from other diurnal birds of prey. Its toes are of equal length, its talons are rounded, rather than grooved. The osprey and owls are the only raptors whose outer toe is reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind. This is particularly helpful when they grab slippery fish.

You do not want to be the fish this osprey has spotted.

The Doctor bought a new computer to observe our time behind his giant nest this year. It was made in China and it is called Tianhe-2. However, the Doctor likes to call it “heavenly River or Milky Way.”  He calls it his supercomputer and won’t let anyone fool with it except himself.  It can perform 33.86 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second) With 16,000 computer nodes, each comprising two Intel Ivy Bridge Xeon processors and three Xeon Phi chips.

The female H. Saipan that lives with him in his giant nest on the bank of the North River was not happy about the purchase.  She tried to cancel the credit card transaction, but the Chinese government would have nothing to do with that.  Anyway, the Doctor is happy, even though he dipped into their retirement savings.

“Can’t wait to get home.”

Well, here I stand on the Pueblo Nueva Peninsula of Venezuela. Several other Osprey are gathered here too. There are the young, middle aged and the older/wiser.

We assess each other, hoping to find a strong, experienced leader; one that can lead a skein across this never ending body of water. I want to be part of that skein. Crossing the Caribbean Sea is the hardest part. We’ll have to fly straight through and hope to spot San Juan or Santa Domingo in the next 36-48 hours.

Wish me luck.
I can’t help but think of Ozzie’s experience last year. He almost perished following that fool friend of his that led the skein far out into the Atlantic Ocean never to be seen again. I think that guy’s navigational instincts had been damaged by a winter of berry juice and cocoa beans. That old buzzard had his half-witted entourage bring him fish during the winter of 2014. To read more about this harrowing experience check out The miracle.

Take they look at this map. The orange area is where we breed. The blue coloration is the area to which we migrate. Some of us stay locally year-round. These areas are colored in green.

In South America we are termed “non-breeding migrants”.

Cleo, Marley and Daisy.

Marley, Cleo and their friend Daisy spent the weekend hunting for gremlins. You may remember last year; gremlins were quite troubling.

Not only did they disrupt the image by chewing through the coaxial cable, but somehow they made the live camera stream difficult to view from the Internet.

“The Doctor will have none of that this year,” said Harriett emphatically. “He has recruited Marley, Cleo  and their friend Daisy to scour the premises for the least evidence of gremlins.

“Arf!” Said Marley. There are no gremlins out here.”

“Arf, Arf!” Agreed Cleo.  “No gremlins to be found.”

And find them they would, if they had still been hiding in the marsh.  Gremlins have a very distinctive odor, not pleasant if I might add. Any dog with a respectable snout can root them out.

“The area is secured Doctor,” barked Daisy.

The osprey (Pandion haliaetus), sometimes known as the fish eagle, sea hawk, or fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 2 feet in length and 6 feet across the wings.

Size relative to a 6-ft man.

Reader prime number # 37 wants to know why Harriett is discussing the moments before the Big Bang.

“Let me ask you this,” said Harriett, hoping not to sound condescending. “Say you have a mission, a calling, to teach children. Would you walk into a classroom of 5 and 6 year-olds without having prepared yourself for your mission? Didn’t you have to learn the alphabet and how to read and write? Didn’t you have to go to school; didn’t you have to go to college; didn’t you have to learn how to interact with children? In short, didn’t you have to do everything in your power to prepare yourself for your mission? Only a fool would set off to accomplish a mission, especially a very complicated, important mission, such as Saving the World or at least Life on Planet Earth as we know it, without studious preparation.  More on this subject later.

Respectfully,

Harriett

• When diving after fish, Ospreys can completely submerge themselves underwater and still be able to fly away with their prey. Most other fish-eating birds of prey can only pluck fish from the surface of the water as they fly by.

The 1st picture shows an osprey hitting the water as he dives. The 2nd shows him coming up with his catch. In the 3rd picture, this Osprey is clutching a large fish with its talons. The fish is so large he is having trouble taking flight. There are reports of Osprey drowning because they could not free their talons from the fish. The 4th picture shows the size of fish they can catch.

• When they dive into the water, Osprey close their third eyelid – called a nictitating membrane – which is semi-transparent. It acts like goggles and helps them see clearly beneath the water.

You will have to enlarge the 2nd picture to see how completely the ospreys eyes are protected at the instant he hits the water. In the 4th picture, look closely there is a bug on this guy’s nicititating membrane.

• When Osprey carry their prey, they always reposition the fish aerodynamically.

I have a Facebook page now.

The Doctor is busy. I can’t wait to get home and see what he has prepared.

Do you really think he can do it?

He spelled “co-sine” incorrectly.  And he’s trying to divide the sine/co-sine ratio by the co-tangent.  Duh!  You can’t do that.  Well at least he’s trying. Do I see “Rotation Earth, Wind Resistance, Summer Tide Schedule, and Moon apogee” on those plans?

He’s come a long way since that 1st platform.

Get a load of what’s happening out back.

Taj Mahal.

I get giddy just thinking about it.

Hugs and kisses!

Harriett