The Osprey Saga

Week 1

by M.C. Koblos

The Season has changed. Spring has come to Cobb Island. My two osprey lodgers, who build their nest each year on the platform I constructed for them just beyond the end of my pier, are busily engaged in building their nest, with winter-fallen twigs from nearby yards and woods. Their efforts are timed perfectly, just before people start raking up the winter debris from yards and lawns.

As usual, the female arrives in early March. She cleans up her nest site and deposits a few twigs to show that both she, and her nest site, is taken. The male arrives around mid-March, much to everyone’s relief and delight. Then the pair flies together and perches side by side on the nest site, or in nearby trees, and gets re-acquainted, since they do not spend the winters together in southern climes.

Now the work on the nest begins, and thus starts their annual cycle of raising a family of two or three fledglings. It’s a joyful and reassuring time to watch, experience and participate in the unfolding of yet another annual cycle of life.

Thus begins Michael Koblos’ promised 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.