Osprey Tales

Daydreaming at the kitchen counter, the Doctor haphazardly gazed at Old North River’s receding tide, hoping his mood would not follow. The need to get a personal, close-up photo of Tweedy gnawed at his sense of certainty, despite the definitive proclamation, from the world’s most renowned naturalist, that the evidence presented thus far is conclusive of Tweedy’s survival.

Unperceived by said Doctor, two friendly ethereal affirmations, signifying truth and nature, circled the room above him. They were jovial and anxious to enter the Doctor’s psych.

Two good willed affirmations

The Doctor is about to experience them both, first like a child comprehending simple mathematics and then like Plato’s Analogy of the Cave.

 Harriett Breaks the Silence 

“Hello Doctor”.  The telepathy passed through the ether at the speed of light.

Like a rogue ocean wave, unexpected and overwhelming, this telepathic thought crashed into the Doctor’s brain, supersaturating and overflowing its meager capacity, but washing it in happiness.

Harriett’s telepathy was strong and clear. Crystal clear, distinct and direct, as if she had something important to say.

“Oh!” The Doctor vocalized before realizing he was not in transference mode.

Overly excited, he spun to look at the newly up-righted platform.

In the process he knocked his sardine and anchovy sandwich onto the floor.

Marley was on it in a flash, but on further inspection, let it lay, neglecting his floor cleaning responsibilities.

But, the newly up-righted platform was empty.

Then;

“Over here,” entered his brain like a laser beam.

The Doctor spun again.   And there was she.

Harriett, his beloved, perched on a limb of the Great White Oak they had lived in two years ago.

Harriett

Fish in talon, she stood confidently, sleek and trim, as beautiful as ever, pulling at the Doctor’s heart strings like never before.

Discombobulated, the Doctor had to control-alt-delete to regain his composure.

“Yes, hello,” the Doctor managed in a broken, child-like telepathic response.

“Harriett?……….Is it you? ………Yes of course, yes, it must be …..who else?” transferred the befuddled Doctor.

 “How are you?” Asked Harriett without a trace of circumspection.

Nonplused, the Doctor momentarily paused, then continued.

“How am I?” The Doctor repeated incredulously.

“It’s not me, how I am, I am how, you are.” The Doctor butchered the Angel’s telepathy.

The Doctor steadied himself and then sent a clear thought transference.

“Are you alright? Harriett?”

Harriett felt the stress in the Doctor’s transfer.

“Relax Doctor. Take it easy,” reassured Harriett.  “I am fine, just fine.”

“Oh, I’m just fine, just fine,” spewed the Doctor sarcastically.

If anything, telepathy augments sarcasm, which of course did not go unnoticed by our Bird.

In an attempt to put the Doctor at ease, Harriett replied, “I am well. Why do you ask?”

“What?!” Exhaled the Doctor. “Are you kidding? Why do I ask”? Sarcasm now gone; derision raising its ugly head.

There was a long uncomfortable pause in their communication.

Finally the Doctor broke the silence.

“Why no telepathy in nine days”? The Doctor inquired in good faith.

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. Had a few things on my mind”.

Her casualness perplexed our human protagonist.

“A few things on your mind? Is that all? I’ve been worried sick about you.” The Doctor humbled himself.

“Worried about me? Why?’

The Doctor stopped to collect his thoughts. Was he missing something?

“Well, Harriett, you know……………the hurricane, your nest, Tweedy’s fate and no communication from you. How could I not worry?”

“Oh, all that,” replied Harriett. “That was just Mother Nature”.

Slowly the Doctor began to realize he did not have a good grasp of the situation. Harriett realized it too.

Harriett sensed the Doctor’s anxiety and continued her thought transferences, in an effort to avoid another awkward pause.

“I hate to admit it, but Ozzie and I got into a big argument the day after the storm. He wanted to head South early to catch the World Cup, and our disagreement got out of control. It was embarrassing. Certainly you will excuse me, while I keep my own house in order”.

“But what about Tweedy and what about your home?”

Now Harriett paused to further assess the situation herself. She realized the Doctor needed more education; a lot more education.

Sympathetically, Harriett began.

Nature 101

“Many humans do not understand nature. They think there is divine intervention in our lives, when in fact the natural order of things, are indeed natural, and cannot to be equated with the will of God”.

Well at least it was a start………………………

Morning

Today could not have been more beautiful. The sunrise was pink-orange.  It illuminated the blue-gray morning clouds, promising a brief shower later in the day.  A July Carolina day followed, bringing happiness to the Doctor and his family.

“Arf”, said Cleo.

“Arf, Arf’, replied Marley.

Sunrise from the Doctor’s big nest

Midday

The local fishermen were hard at work.

Afternoon

Conditions were right.  Blue sky, sun at 2 o’clock, wind at 6 knots, O & H just dying to be photographed.

The Doctor had his new D5200 Nikon digital camera, with all its fancy lenses set up.  The battery was changed and the chip in place.  It was focused and ready to shoot.

But then a couple of the Doctor’s bridge friends came over and said, “Let’s Play Bridge”.

The following image came to the Doctor’s mind:

 Addiction

Doctor could not resist.

“I’ll just play a few hands”, he told his friends. Which of course lead to more hands, and then some more and then more.

The Doctor thought he had shaken all of his addictions, but he was wrong.

Unable to not play, and at the same time watching O & H out the back window, lead to a most difficult psychological challenge.

“It was hard to concentrate”, admitted the Doctor.

“Hard to concentrate?  You’ve got to be kidding.  He was helpless, unable to divert his attention away from O & H, who were engaged in all sorts of activities just outside his big nest window”.*

In particular the Doctor wanted to get a singular photo of Tweedy, to resolve his anguish once and for all.

But the competition was keen.

“One heart, one spade, two no trump”…….what’s an osprey friend to do?

The Female Human that lives with the Doctor, also his bridge partner, understood his inattention and said nothing of his poor play. Their opponents just thought, “Well, you know, he gets like that sometime”.

Evening

After a brief rain shower, the sun brought out the best in The North River.  The marsh grass turned iridescent golden-green  and the sky offered, “Here you are, God loves you”; a rainbow; brilliant, glorious, magnificent.

Double Rainbow behind the Doctor’s big nest

*”Does any one know this mysterious, omniscient third person narrator that seems to have taken over”?  asked the Doctor.

A picture paints a thousand words.

The platform had not been restored an hour, before out of the blue, the Female that lives with the Doctor noticed an osprey circling high above .

“Click”, went her camera.

Picture #1

A single osprey high above the uprighted platform.  No doubt about it.

“Click”, again.

Confirmation. Definitely a single osprey soaring above the Doctor’s big nest.  Is that a second bird too?  Your guess is as good as mine.

“Good eyes for a human”, said this mysterious narrator.

“You are a doubting Thomas”, chided the Human Female that lives with the Doctor.

To add fuel to the fire, she became the Devil’s Advocate for Tweedy’s certain survival.

The Doctor’s gut feeling was the contrary, but he dare not hint of his misgivings.  In deference to his better half he graciously bit his tongue.

The Doctor took a home school, cram course on how to use his new Nikon D5200 digital camera, with all its fancy lenses, finished in fifteen minutes and settled himself at the back of his big nest to expect the unexpected.

It did not take long.

“Click”, went the Doctor’s Nikon D5200.

Two osprey soaring at high altitude.  Without a doubt.

“Click”, once again.

No question about it. Two osprey high above their previous home.

Then suddenly;

“Three osprey! Three osprey”! blurted out the Doctor, as he sprang from the back porch, into the kitchen, tripping over the door jam, bouncing off the floor and landing on Marley who was sleeping peacefully under the kitchen counter.

Arf! Arf! exclaimed Marley, expressing his sentiments in no uncertain terms. 

These observations may not have evoked such a response from the Doctor, if not for the fact that Ozzie was nonchalantly standing on the oyster rock not more than 200 yards away.

The osprey friends ran out to see for themselves.

Seeings is believing.

Now look at this photo.

There are three ospreys in this photo. Harriett and Tweedy are on the oyster rock and Ozzie is on the marker at the far right., the Osprey Friends concluded.

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.