Three birds hold
me in their thrall. The osprey, whippoorwill, and oft-slighted buzzard. I love
the whippoorwill’s lilting call. The noble osprey and its distinctive M-shaped
wings stands out, and the utilitarian buzzard of which I write often—where would
we be without it?
I love too the osprey’s whistling, hinge-in-need-of-oil mating
call. Soon the whistling commences. Osprey breeding season begins in late
February to early March. If you know where to look, you’ll see pairs returning
to nest near water. I know two places to look. Anthony Shoals on Georgia’s
Broad River and Crooked Bridge on Georgia Highway 220 in Lincoln County.
For years my drive to my sisters’ homes takes me across Bridge SR
220 at Soap Creek, known locally as Crooked Bridge. The bridge makes a subtle
arc, thus the “crooked” misnomer. What I care about most there is the osprey
breeding platform, bereft of its breeding platform. I suppose Helene did that
or perhaps weathering and decay weakened the much-needed platform and Helene
finished her off. Now a pole juts into the air. Perhaps a jaybird could nest
there but not an osprey.
When I see an osprey nesting platform a mix of shame and pride
fill me. I’m ashamed of how we’ve destroyed the bird’s preferred nesting
habitat—tall forests by the water. You see this bird has another name, fish
hawk, and what better place for a fish hawk to nest than up high overlooking
water. At least we try to mimic its habitat with this spartan square platform
of weather-resistant wood, 3’x3′ or 4’x4′, affixed to a tall pole. Some
platforms provide predator guards and perches. I hear tell such a nest is more
stable than a nest in a tree. I’ll let you tell Mrs. Osprey that.
For years now I’ve trained my eye on the Crooked Bridge platform
to spot the head of the osprey sitting on the nest. I and others will notify
the Georgia Department of Naturel Resources of the situation at Crooked Bridge.
I suspect they know and a rescue mission is forming up. If help arrives in
time, come April two to four eggs will hatch after some 38 days of incubation
by both parents. The young will fledge around 55 days after hatching and stay
near the nest until the late summer/early fall migration to Central America and
northern South America. Some overwinter down here. I’ve seen them aplenty and I
like that. Stay down South, osprey.
Yes, three birds hold me in their thrall. The osprey,
whippoorwill, and oft-slighted buzzard. The osprey comes out on top. It puts on
quite a show, especially at my favorite natural area, Georgia’s Anthony Shoals.
My mother grew up close by and she took me there when I was five years old.
Memories aplenty.
Tempus fugit.
Silver haired now
I recall a day in May 2021 at Anthony Shoals. Daylight gave the rocky shoals
spider lilies a glow and shadows turned the water indigo. Hidden within a
natural blind I observed the world that used to be as ospreys whistled,
circled, and plummeted. One crashed into the water just yards away. It sat there
with a fish too large to lift, then flew away to try again. It had young to
feed.
Two osprey haunts a short drive apart. The
distance between Crooked Bridge and Anthony Shoals is about 28 miles and for me
many, many years. A rescue mission of another sort took place at Crooked Bridge
when I was a boy of eighteen. On a Friday afternoon in September my father sank
his 1964 white Chrysler 300 during a boat loading mishap. Had it been April or
May a nesting osprey would have had the proverbial bird’s eye view of this
disaster.
Dad took that car apart and dried it out
on the front yard—engine, seats, carpet, everything. He drove it for years.
Now, surely a rescue mission will replace that platform for I hope to see an
osprey scanning waters where a Chrysler 300 visited the fish it loves. Should
that mission fall by the wayside, my drives home will never be the same, and
I’ll be stuck with two sad memories and a bit more shame.