They came swooping down out of the sky, performing a ballet so in sync with each other's moves, it seemed to be professionally choreographed. Saturday marked the return of the Osprey and what must be the beginning of their mating season. Two beautiful birds chased each other up and down, side to side, swooping and swishing, gliding, diving and soaring over our heads. It was an amazing sight to behold - their dance, simply magical. That is, until a third Osprey came racing from its nest behind our neighbour's house to chase the two dancing birds away from what can only be perceived as his neck of the woods.
No sooner had this lone bird chased the intruders away, then he swooped low over the southern side of our yard, past the apple orchard and landed directly behind the Virgin Mary tree stump. He did two quick fly-bys and then WOOSH, he came in for a landing. Except that he didn't land at all. He merely swooped down and gathered something up in his talons and took flight again, returning to his nest for lunch. We think he might have enjoyed partridge for lunch. We hope not, but our flock of partridges have lately taken up residence in evergreen corner, right by the Virgin Mary. We had a family of 8...I fear it may only be a family of 7 now.
Three Ospreys and two hawks circled between our yard, the back field and our neighbour's yard that day. The sun caught the silver underside of the hawk as it hovered above our yard looking for prey. The osprey found nourishment with the partridge family. Lucky for us that the Gidget was inside for most of this show - otherwise she could have ended up as someone's mid-day meal. And as cranky as she is, and as often as I think of divesting myself of this little she-devil, I think it would be an awful way for her to go - as someone's fly-through snack.
On Sunday we were here:
When we saw this:
