OSPREY BRINGS
AN AUTUMN FEELING
Until a couple of weeks ago our rainy season had
been a piddling one. Hurricane Dean changed that, ushering in day after day of drizzle and
showers. Last Friday while walking along the reservoir in the rain I saw an Osprey sailing
in and out of white showers drawing across the lake. You can see several pictures of
Ospreys flying at http://www.wnywildlife.com/alabama/osprey/osprey.php.
Ospreys occur here only while migrating and in the winter, so this bird reminded me
that somehow already the summer rainy season is mostly over, and that now days are
shortening as the winter dry season approaches.
When I was a kid in Kentucky Ospreys appeared only as they migrated between their
wintering grounds much farther to the south and their nesting grounds much farther to the
north so, to me, Ospreys are "change birds." Last Friday when I saw that Osprey
I was like Pavlov's dog reacting to a ringing bell: The Osprey automatically induced in me
a sense of change. Also, I wondered where he'd just come from, what swamps, and towns and
busy interstate highways he'd just sailed over.
In Mexico Ospreys live year-round along the northwestern coast and the Yucatan's
eastern coast. Northern birds winter all along the coasts of both sides of the country,
and here and there in the uplands, including at Jalpan's reservoir.
Last Friday, as the Osprey reconnoitered the reservoir's misty shoreline, a Wilson's
Warbler -- also a winter visitor here -- flitted and chipped in the Sweet Acacia behind
me, shaking silvery water droplets from deep-green acacia leaflets. When I walked away
several Spotted Sandpipers flushed from a nearby bank and of course they also were winter
visitors. |