A Winter Day

Well, it’s not really winter, of course. But it’s about as close as we get around here. So I had to go out exploring.

First things first, there’s this guy: 

Just hanging out atop a very tall tree, in order to have an advantageous view of all that surrounds him. I believe this one is still not quite fully mature – the white head still seems a bit flecked with brown – but this brings to three the number of Bald Eagles I’ve seen at Fort Pickens in the past week or so.

Then a stroll out to the Sound, along the trail that runs beside Big Mama’s nest. I spotted several Pelicans fishing and thought I’d go out to see what was going on. This view along the shoreline shows how low the tide was.

There were four Willets grazing the shallows, but they were pretty boring, so I trained my lens on the Pelis. Never did get a goods shot of one diving – which is what I was hoping for. But I did catch these two in flight.

As I walked back toward the car I looked up at Big Mama’s nest silhouetted against the cobalt blue sky. First I noticed how raggedy the nest itself has become, with no residents to tend it since August.

But then I took a look at the tree itself and realized that that trunk is very nearly rotted away.  I wonder how much longer it will last. Winter winds and rains bring down a lot of these dead Pine trees.

Most of these – and there are thousands of them around Fort Pickens – were killed by the overwashing of the Gulf during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. So this one has been there a long time. And Big Mama’s nest has been in this exact place for at least five or six years that I know of.

I wonder what she would do if, when she returns in early March, her old nest is gone. There are other snags nearby. But she has had command of this particular spot for quite a while, and she’s raised a lot of chicks there.

It is a particularly advantageous spot, standing as it does out in the open, in such a way as to afford a commanding view of the surrounding trees and airspace. And I’ve watched her and her mate fight off more than one would-be attacker, including other Ospreys and at least one Bald Eagle.

If it is to come down soon I just hope it happens before she returns and rebuilds. I’d hate to see that nest fall after there are eggs in it, or chicks.

I suppose we shall see …