I volunteered this year to be part of our local Osprey monitoring program, and I am now an official Osprey voyeur. AKA: Bird Watcher. Turns out, Osprey monitors are really peepers, watching and documenting the breeding activities of these fine feathered temporary friends. Nest building, copulation (I’m told I will know it when I see it), incubation (the female doesn’t leave the nest – males deliver fish), egg laying, egg hatching, nestlings and fledglings. The adults are due to arrive on St. Patrick’s Day and, have successfully sealed the deal, are predicted to depart in mid-August. I haven’t been assigned the nest(s) I will being monitoring yet, but yesterday I spied a nesting platform that is not located on the official Osprey monitoring map. I am hoping I can make it my nest – mostly because there is a spot on the road that is higher than the platform which will make observation easier. Osprey platforms and their nests tend to be way up high in the sky, which means you are always looking up at – rather than down into – the nest and that makes it hard to see the nestlings. Okay, there’s an added bonus to this particular platform: Taylor Swift can see it from her the deck of her local beach house, which means there’s a good possibility that, in addition to a housekeeper and a New York City accompanist, we’ll also be sharing an Osprey nest. Where will it end?
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