Walked the dogs down to Handy’s Point on Wednesday night and heard the shrill keening call of a weird bird. “Where have I heard that before?” I wondered.
Looked up and there on the Starter Castle on the point, atop one of the chimneys like an onion dome on a Swiss church, was a pair of ospreys, the sea eagles that cruise the shoreline picking off herring and menhaden.
Neighbors Nicole and Jeremy said their favorite nesting pair are out of luck thanks to one of the neighbors who knocked down their nest. Shame, amazing birds that were not around when I was a kid due to the DDT issues which made their eggshells too thin to support the mother’s weight in the nest. Duxbury resident Rachel Carson wrote “Silent Spring,” got attacked by the chemical industry, but made her point, people became conscious of the effect of insecticides on fish and birds, and at some point in the 1990s the birds made their return.
Great news! I checked my favorite nesting spot on the Centerville River last weekend a few times and saw nothing. I guess it’s time to think about taking the cover off the boat.
One can observe the winter migration, and return of two Westport Mass osprey here:
http://www.westportosprey.org/