"Where is my food?"

  While out weeding the garden, I kept hearing a screeching that was all too familiar.  This was that of a fledgling bird calling for its parents to "Feed me!".   At this point, the youngster should be well on its own but it has grown so accustomed to being waited on hand and foot that it feels that it cannot possibly forage for itself.  Weening time had come and the parents were making fewer and fewer visits to their youngster. Instead, they were off searching for food for themselves.  This left the lazy teenager to do nothing but screech and go hungry.  After a long enough time, the goofy kid will get the idea and decide "Well, I guess nobody is coming.  Maybe I can catch something for myself."  It is either do or die.  The parents were practicing a bit of tough love here.

  The fledgling in question was none other than a young osprey.  It was perched far in the top of the old, dead pine and was watching as the parents were practicing the fine art of catching mullet in the shallows of the Bayou.  The young osprey expectantly awaited for lunch with each plummeting parent.  Nope.  It did not happen.  As I watched, the parents actually let a few small mullet drop back into the water just to nudge their offspring to take action.  That lazy thing did nothing but screech.

  This kept on all afternoon.  The young osprey only left its perch twice and only attempted a catch once even though the parents had dropped several injured fish for easy catching.  The bird went hungry while the older ospreys moved further and further away.  In a couple of days, they will no longer be around to feed this offspring.  If it has learned its lessons, the youngster will be ok.  If not, it will have a rough time finding food until it can perfect the technique. Happy hunting, Squirt. You are going to need all the luck you can get here real soon.