Good evening from the (finally) drying out Eastern Shore of Maryland. It’s hard to believe that it has been six months since the Crazy Osprey Family first started writing this blog. We couldn’t just leave all of our faithful osprey camera watchers and blog readers without a heartfelt thank you for following our osprey family since April. I apologize for the delay in bidding you all “so long for now”, but the lazy, hazy days of summer are behind us and life has taken on the never-ending urgency of work, school and everything else in between.
We certainly had a great run. Believe it or not, I saw an osprey fly through the back yard yesterday afternoon. It is the first one I have seen in a couple of weeks, but I feel certain that Tom, Audrey, Chester, Essie and our little Ozzie have all left for warmer winter quarters. There was one osprey hanging around for a few days earlier in the month that was visible in the nest, but I do not think it was one of ours. Migrating ospreys will pass through at times, and our nest may have looked very inviting to one of the travelers. There will be one last adventure happening when Crazy Osprey Man removes this year’s nest and takes down the camera. This could happen as early as this afternoon depending on the weather and tide. The Chesapeake Conservancy will be posting the anticipated take down date and time, which is currently scheduled for today at around 5:00 p.m. Tom and Audrey’s return in the spring will be anxiously awaited by all of us.
I have taken hundreds and hundreds of photos during our journey together, and hope you have liked the ones I have been able to share. As a final farewell (until we meet again in a few months), I will leave you with many photos to enjoy for now. Some of the photos are of other visitors in our midst, some are photos that I haven’t been able to post to the other blogs and some are photos I just like!
So here goes!! Remember, you can click on each photograph to enlarge it for better viewing.
Jeff from the Chesapeake Conservancy and Crazy Osprey Man after Ozzie’s rescue
Chester, Essie and a supervising adult on the dock to the south of us
Early morning visitor-check out breakfast arriving in the background (taken from inside our house)
A cool photo of one of our juveniles landing in a tree to the north of us
This is how we dry our wings!
Four juveniles in the nest-a visitor from the nest to the north of us
For the Jimmy Buffett fans in our midst- “Gypsies in the Palace”. For the rest of the uninitiated-a friend taking care of the nest while the ospreys are out of town
Siblings-great view of chest markings or lack thereof
Landing
Hanging in the neighborhood-perch, nest and camera
Osprey in tree, osprey on piling
Sibling fun-Chester and Essie flying around together #1
Sibling fun #2
Sibling fun #3
Sibling fun #4
Drying wings on one of Crazy Osprey Man’s perches
One of my favorite landing photos
Friend looking for a handout
Chester in flight
A great flight photo
Landing after the last photo #1
Landing continued
Taking off
Friends in flight #1
Friends in flight #2
Dinner!
More friends looking for a handout
If you see any ospreys come back, I’m outta here (heron on our dock)
Forget the osprey, here comes a crazy woman with a camera-See ya!
I don’t think she can get to me over here (heron flew to the dock next door to the south of us)
Learning to catch our own meals
Mrs. COM loves these shots and had to put in two
Three in a tree-middle one has a fish
That’s not an osprey, that’s a kingfisher! This is the tree where Tom would break off branches for the nest while in flight- next door to the north of us
This poor fish is flying upside down-fortunately, he doesn’t realize this is the least of his worries!
Upside down dinner #2
Juvenile bald eagle in the big tree two houses to the north of us
Adult bald eagle on the dock next door to the north of us
Crazy woman with the camera chases off our national bird
Mrs. COM in action
And so this brings us to the close of our 2013 blogs, unless something really cool happens and we just have to post an epilogue! We thank you all again for sticking with us through the good times and the bad. Your words of praise posted on Facebook were very much appreciated by the entire Crazy Osprey Family, and we always looked forward to reading your comments. Kudos and many thanks to the Chesapeake Conservancy for making it possible for us to share this experience with all of you across the country and around the globe. Crazy Osprey Man and the Chesapeake Conservancy are already making plans to enhance the ospreycam for next year. We think you will like it!
I would like to leave you with one last photograph taken at sunrise behind our house a few days ago:
Sunrise in the land of Tom and Audrey-October 2013
Goodbye for now, our osprey-loving friends. We can’t wait to make another memorable osprey journey with you again in 2014. Until next time, we remain…
Crazy Osprey Man, Mrs. Crazy Osprey Man and Osprey Girl
If you have enjoyed the osprey camera and blog, please consider a donation to the Chesapeake Conservancy so they are able to continue supporting programs such as this one. Go to http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org today. Thank you very much!
Osprey Camera Blog 