Osprey Tales

Still no telepathy from Harriett. The Doctor continues his investigation. He has more evidence to share, but first we must take a look at some special humans. Harriett calls them Osprey Friends.

Good job Osprey Friends.

What follows is amazing and hard to believe.  It is all factual and documented by way of digital photography.  It is truly hard to believe. So much has happened over the past 36 hrs, the Doctor can only hope to present a brief outline of events. He promises to elaborate as soon as possible.

Here are the facts up to this hour:

Carnage at Daybreak

The platform lay on its side like a wounded warrior. The Doctor and the Female that lives with him heard him groan when they inspected the carnage at daybreak.

         
The Wounded Warrior

I am proud of The Wooden Warrior for all he has done for the O & H family.  He had no idea he possessed an Achilles’ heel. Wooden Warrior is a hero, as far as I am concerned. He did his best and more. It is just another fact of nature, one might say, that he had an unknown large knot at his water line.  This was The Wooden Warrior’s Achilles’ heel.

Just leaving the dying warrior lying in the mud and oyster rock, on its side drowning, in The North River was not an option. Something had to be done.

Old North River shows no mercy.

If you watch the whole thing, you will sense the mood of the morning.

See how The North River cares nothing for the heroic Wooden Warrior.  Mother Nature again?

The mood of O&H’s followers was somber.  The nest and platform was destroyed.  Tweedy had drowned. No ospreys are to be seen.  No telepathy from Harriett.  Mother Nature not caring.

This morning a group of the Doctor’s friends showed up.  Even Jimazing flew in from where ever he flies in from.

Their intention was to help the Doctor do what had to be done, what ever that may be. Perhaps reconstructing what remained of the platform or hauling it to the place it should be hauled. The 6 x 6 treated piling supporting the platform had broken off at the waterline. None of the humans could understand it. The final consensus is that there was a large knot at the site of fracture.

Does this look like a knot to you?

It was just bad luck the piling had this unseen flaw and that it happened to be at the waterline. None of the humans suspected a class 1 hurricane could take the platform down.

This group of O&H friends thought it best to reset the platform back into its upright position. Why? They really did not know why. It seemed the right thing to do. Maybe to pay respect; maybe to change the ugliness of the sight; maybe to show the Doctor their empathy… I think each volunteer was having different thoughts with the singular purpose of just doing something to improve the situation.

So, setting the platform up right became the plan.

It would only be 7 or 8 feet high, but what else could be done? Incredibly the camera is still working, even after being submerged during the last two high tides. Perhaps O&H would like to build a frustration eyrie.

Please excuse the Doctor.  He desperately wants to continue this tale, but it is past 11:00 o’clock.  Like any and all organic life forms on planet Earth, he needs sleep, preferably a consistent sleep wake cycle, adequate nutrition, food shelter and love.

The Doctor has learned this the hard way, so please have patience while he does his best to live a healthy life style.  There is no doubt he will continue describing these amazing, hard to believe events at his first possible opportunity.

There is good evidence that Tweedy is alive.

The Happy Fairy

The Happy Fairy visited the Doctor last night.

“If you are worried about Harriett and Ozzie,”said she. “Do not. You do not understand Mother Nature like I do”.

The Doctor has been touched by the outpouring of concern, compassion and love coming his way.

“I didn’t know I had that many friends”, said he. “The Happy Fairy has even come to see me”.

The Female human that lives with the Doctor in the big nest had to break the news.
She did it gently.

Grief and sorrow seized the Doctor……

……..and he cried.

“Stop it! Stop it! This is silly,” the Doctor admonished himself.

The Happy Fairy understood. She understands Human Nature, just as she understands Mother Nature.

Mother Nature

“Let me explain”, The Happy Fairy continued.

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural, physical, or material world or universe. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

Mother Nature is the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth. For simplicity, let’s just talk about planet Earth.

Mother Nature

Mother Nature isn’t “cruel”.

It’s only human sentimentality that imposes human feelings on situations that makes it seem cruel. Mother Nature doesn’t care one way or another; cruelty requires consciousness which nature does not possess”.

“Listen, Doctor”, continued The Happy Fairy. “A bit of advice; learn to expect the unexpected”.

Nest Failure

Osprey nest failure is simply defined. An osprey nest is said to have “failed” if a living off-spring is not produced, survives, and begins its migration south at nature’s appointed time.

Nest failure is not uncommon.

Reports range from 10% to 30% from different years and locations. (Ex. July 2010 – Mobjack Bay, Chesapeake Bay, the failure rate was 30 percent, etc…)

No one knows for sure why some nest fail. Some of the more obvious reasons are:

1. Food stress

2. Predation- Raccoons, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Great Horned Owl

3. Most of you know the DDT story – The Chesapeake Bay is home of the largest population of ospreys in the world. During the nightmare years in the 1970’s. The pesticide DDT nearly wiped them out. Nest failure rates approached 70%.

4. Human interference

5. Non-viable eggs – for whatever reason.

6. Idiopathic disorders

7. Lack of parental experience – young parents first-time or even second-time nesting ospreys do not always have their act together.

8. And of course inclement weather.

“Frustration Eyrie”

Breeding pairs whose nest have failed, often construct a “frustration eyrie”. Both parents bring in new nesting material, and live there until mid-August, when they migrate to South America. There will be no more egg laying for this season. They are simply responding to Mother Nature’s rules.

Be Happy

“So”, said The Happy Fairy. “Be happy. Life is beautiful”.

The Doctor smiled.

“Thank you, Happy Fairy”, said he.

The Doctor tried one last time, using his best telepathic technique to contact Harriett.

Nothing.

“Remember Bob Marley or was it McFarrin? I can’t remember”, quipped The Happy Fairy, just before she flew away.

“Don’t worry, be happy”.

Harriett:

“I knew it was coming.

Unbeknownst to most, osprey can sense and predict the weather much better that humans.

There is a subspecies of humans that believe they have special powers, when it comes to predicting the weather. They believe they have a rare recessive gene that gives them this ability. It also gives them large egos, an actor want-a-be complex, good looks and white teeth. The particular human of interest, to which I refer, is called a Meteorologist. I only mention this as a fleeting humorous observation I have made of humanity.

Now let us get more serious.

This hurricane they call “Arthur” is really just an area of low pressure originating in the tropics with winds that began spinning counter-clockwise a few days ago. When the wind speed reached 74 mph, everyone started calling “Arthur”.

Arthur

The Doctor is confident our platform-nest can withstand this class 1 hurricane. I think so too. But make no mistake, this hurricane is a threat to Tweedy, Ozzie and myself. We will do the best we can do. What else is there? Isn’t that what we all do? The best we can do, being honest and truthful to ourselves and the ones we love?”

The Doctor:

This was the last communication I had with Harriett last night. Now steel your heart for some bad news.

Thursday July 3, 2014. 8:38 PM

Hunkered Down

9:09 and 48 sec.

It Happened

Friday July 4, 2014.

Daybreak

Friday Morning

Harriett comes back to survey the damage.

But, she does not contact me. I have tried to contact her three or four times today. She does not respond.

Learning to fly is the next important step for Tweedy.

After that comes mastering sophisticated fishing skills.

Until Tweedy learns to fish successfully, she will continue to rely on her parents for food.

On average, osprey fledglings make their first flight on week seven or eight of life.

I know the Doctor has sent you a couple video clips showing Tweedy flapping her wings. Here is another.

I do not remember Riki being so strong at five weeks and two days.

By the way, the Doctor thinks he has found a way to make these video clips not present as stretched to wide or squeezed too thin. It is just another IT problem he is having. Wish him luck.

The sun burns its way through a light mist. The purples martins seem unusually active. There is a steady northeast breeze at 5 mph and my friend Magic is showing off for Tweedy.

It is going to be a beautiful day on the North River.

Over at the big nest I heard the Doctor grumble. Marley forgot it was the weekend and began his wake up duty. Once he gets started, Marley faithfully finishes the job he has started. Good boy Marley.

“I’m glad you spoke to her”, said Harriett. You may think she was not listening, but just hearing it from you makes a difference”.

Ozzie was not so sure.

“Did you tell her about her reversible talons?

Ozzie continued rearranging the nest with speaking

“No matter, she’ll figure it out quickly” Harriett chirped.

The Osprey’s talons are specially adapted to allow one of its three front toes to bend backwards so that there are two claws pointing forward and two in reverse on each foot. No other bird of prey has this ability. It helps secure a good grip on a slippery fish. In addition osprey have sharp spicules on the underside of the toes, and backwards-facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help hold its catch.

“Why are we talking about fishing when she can’t even fly yet”? Ozzie interrupted.

“Take it easy”, reassured Harriett. “I believe Tweedy will be flying by the end of the week”. You saw her flapping her wings yesterday. I think she is doing very well. In fact I think she is advanced for her age”.

All mothers say that”’ thought Ozzie.

Early this morning Harriett took off to do a little fishing herself. Make no mistake, Ozzie is a fisher-bird extraordinaire and has supplied his family with more than enough fish at any and all times.

Harriett was not hungry, but she was in the mood for speckled trout, so she set off to try her luck.

Harriett snags a trout

Back at the nest, Ozzie pulled Tweedy aside.

“Listen, Tweedy”, he said.

Tweedy approached Ozzie with self-confidence and a smile.

“The world out there is not easy. Nature can be harsh and cruel. I just want you to know that your Mom and I are trying our best to prepare you for what is about to come”.

Tweedy, looked annoyingly at her father, just as human teenage females do in such situations.

“What do you think Mom and I have been talking about for the past three weeks”, Tweedy thought, trying not to show her derisive attitude.

Ozzie recognized Tweedy’s posture. What parent would not?

“I’m just telling you that in the next three weeks you must be able to fly, fish, learn to protect yourself and be prepared to migrate 2000 plus miles south”.

Tweedy was polite to her father, despite her perceived lack of insight and judgment into matters of life that poor old Dad did not possess.

Ozzie returned to his nest maintenance with nothing else to say; except a prayer for his daughter.

Nestling
            

Nestling – A young, recently hatched osprey that has not yet grown flight feathers and is unable to fly. Nestlings are entirely dependent on their parents for food and protection.

Fledgling

As osprey mature and begin to grow their adult flight feathers, they are no longer called nestlings and instead are referred to as fledglings.

        
(Note the eye color)

Fledgling – A young osprey that has grown enough to acquire its initial flight feathers and is preparing to leave the nest. Young birds that have left the nest but do not yet have all their adult plumage and are still fed by the parent birds are also referred to as fledglings.

Fledgling plumage is most visible on a bird’s wings and tail, where the flight feathers will appear much shorter than an adult’s feathers. Fledglings are capable of flying but are inexperienced and may seem reluctant to fly or may show difficulty with takeoffs, landings or distance flight. As the feathers continue to grow, the birds will gain more flying skill and their plumage will become indistinguishable from adult birds.

Week # 5

O&H cannot be more proud; proud but responsible parents.

The danger for Tweedy has just begun. Studies show that only 50% of raptors survive their first year after fledging. Migration is risky business. In just a few weeks Tweedy must be prepared for the dangerous and grueling migration to South America. It’s well over 1000 miles.

.

I couldn’t help but send you this video, before the Doctor gets home. He leaves the office window in his big nest open for me at night. I’m sure he will be excited when he sees it.

Did the Doctor’s “Link” work?

Go to https://ospreytales.wordpress.com/ .
You can “subscribe by e-mail” on the right side of page.

Harriett O. Raptor
Doctor’s Platform
North River Carteret Co. NC
hc.merrick@vitalsignsnc.com
Latitude: 34.7286515079363
Longitude: -76.6212389981747

The Doctor wants to cover the development of Tweedy from her birth to her migration south” repeated Harriett.

“Can he do it”? Asks she, as if challenging the faith and loyalty of the Doctor’s friends.

“I have a question for the faithful”, she continued.

“Who remembers the experiences of Riki, my first born, during his first 18 months of life”?

Silence released the discomfort she knew all her readers politely harbored.

There was a long uneasy quiet, just as she expected.

Unperturbed, Harriett announced, “I am going to ask the Doctor if he can create a “link” to the past”. “It will give him something to do this weekend”.

“Meanwhile I will prepare the information that all humans should know regarding birth, growth, development and maturation of the our species”. Without such basic knowledge, our goal of Saving the World or at least Life on Planet Earth will be impossible.

The Doctor said to try this:

“Link” to Good Bye Riki.