I have hesitated to write the next chapter on our friends, the Osprey, residing at the Naval Academy.  I’d hoped for… I’m not sure what I had hoped for. But, here’s the latest…

Pearl and Pablo, the younger generation, returned from the south around March 12th. They found their intact nest and got to work fluffing the pillows and sweeping out the winter’s dust.

Opal and Oscar, the elders, flew in a few days later to a less welcoming discovery.  For the next week, Oscar and Opal worked assiduously carrying branches back to reconstruct their nest.  The weather has been cold and windy, and the osprey did not have an easy time.  The last time I saw them was the morning after a March snowstorm.  They were perched randomly, and forlornly it seemed to me, on the field lights overlooking the Annapolis harbor.

I have not seen them since that morning.

Pearl and Pablo, however, are flourishing.  I see them daily, sometimes swooping low as if to wish me good morning. They seem to have a clutch and share the duties guarding and warming the eggs in the nest.  Today, Pearl was enjoying her fresh catch-of-the-day on one light post, while Pablo called out in a somewhat annoyed series of chirps from his duty post. (She seemed in no hurry to take over the nesting chores.)  

So, what am I to make of all this?  Well, I’m so glad I saw Oscar and Opal one final time, so I need not wonder if they survived the return to Maryland.  I will think of them nesting this spring on a more congenial perch along one of our nearby creeks.

Pearl and Pablo are fine and carry on their parents’ proud tradition of familial devotion. Their progeny will delight me with their fledgling flying lessons and fishing expeditions.

Life goes on…  and around the Bay all of us, creatures great and small, are rousing ourselves for another go at survival and procreation and joy.