The Osprey Saga

Week 16: Junior Thrives

There is only one baby osprey this year, Olivia usually has three each year, but she has been having her trials of late. Last year, she lost all her babies when a windstorm toppled the nest into the water and the chicks drowned. This year, some sort of mishap occurred with her initial eggs.

Junior is growing by leaps and bounds and is well attended by his parents. I see his little tousled head poking up above the nest every day now as his mother feeds him fresh-caught fish. When he’s not eating, Junior is still small enough to crouch beneath his mother’s fluffy breast plumage and wile away the hours protected from the burning sun.

He will soon be too large for that and go from infant to little bird. As is the case with all children, he’ll be an adolescent soon enough, and will have to learn the ways of the world and how to be a self-sufficient adult. It is the way of all that lives.

The photo was taken by my friend Sam Wood, who is a genius with a camera and a fine nature photographer.

Thus continues Michael Koblos’ 26-week saga of the doings of his nearest osprey family. A 78-year-old retired naval officer, Koblos lives in a small cottage on the water, Home Port, in a place called Cobb Island, located in the wide Potomac River about 50 miles south of Washington, D.C.