August 4

August 4, 2008 by OrientSee.

Today was a special day. You always remember the first time that your kid walked. It’s burned into your memory.  There’s scarcely a bigger thrill to be had anywhere. The Osprey young have been couch potatoes for some time now. They are nearly as big as the adults but content to sit and watch. Today there was some serious wing flexing and little hops across the platform. Then one of them did it.

As you can see, the youngster is four or five feet above the nest. I whooped aloud with delight. A few minutes later (sorry no picture) it took off and flew a loop of several hundred feet around the platform accompanied by an adult. It was really flying. The funny part was that it had a four foot piece of nesting material hung up in one talon. It was real flight and it recovered to the platform.  I assume that the other two will quickly follow.

Meanwhile even though the tide was low, the Egret posse was back and forth across the grass flats.

The numbers kept changing as they flew back and forth but at one point there were 16 Snowy Egrets and 5 Great Egrets.

The only ominous sign of the day was this foliage on a Sumac.

We certainly have gotten plenty of rain so this isn’t because of a dry August. Actually a few other Sumacs showed this too. I tremble to think that this means a long cold and early cold season.  Still it has been a beautiful day to be out and all this red gold may just be a quirk (I hope).

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily - the next year | No Comments »