This One Tolerates Me...

  Yesterday, I made mention of my preference of critter friends over people friends, as I have so many times in the past.  It is just a "me" thing as I prefer peace and I often find that in the animals of the Bayou.  They are merely trying to survive and have no time for frivolous drama and pettiness.  I, also, stated that there are some critters here that plain do not wish to be buddy-buddy with me and I fully respect that.  

  One of those "not so close" critters is the osprey.  Ospreys have their standards of who is to be trusted and I am obviously not one on their list.  In fact, their list is rather short.  I am not sure they even like other ospreys.  That said, there are a couple around who do not mind my presence purely because they have grown accustomed to my daily hikes about the hillside.  I still consider them as my friends but I have not gained the honor of being "their" friend.  That is ok.  I can still watch and admire them from a distance.

  Early this afternoon, a beautiful osprey sat on the pier post as I was meandering down the board path.  I could hear its screams as soon as I opened the front door so it was only natural that I venture down that way.  The osprey was resting from a day of hunting.  Earlier, it flew over the house with a rather large fish but was back within a few moments.  I assume that either it "presented" its catch to its potential mate or lost the fish to an eagle.  (Eagles are notorious thieves!  They will wait until an osprey catches a fish, then steal it rather than work to catch their own!)  The ospreys do not nest until early April so I am hesitant to say the fish fed little ones but with the warm weather, anything is possible...not plausible nor probable but surely possible.

  This afternoon, the osprey stayed put until I was well on halfway down the pier.  The bird eyed me constantly as if in hopes that I would retreat back up the hillside.  Once it took flight, it made a huge loop and came back to the same post.   I stood watching then turned to let it rest in peace.  There was no need in disturbing this majestic bird.  I was happy just to catch a couple of photos from the distance.