That Ruffled Her Feathers!

 Our blustery March seems to be never ending.  Lately, a roar of winds, rattling of windows and snapping of small tree limbs can be constantly heard.  It is sort of weird that I find this a bit unsettling as usually I love a good storm.  I am a bit unnerved that this may be a harbinger of things to come this summer, namely during hurricane season.  The waters of the Gulf have never cooled.  Our lack of a good cold winter left the waters tepid at the very least and, more likely, downright warmish.  This does not bode well.

  Today, like every other day recently, I headed to the pier to check the small skiff.  Son and I pulled it well up in the small inlet alongside of the pier but with the winds coming from the southeast, the tide has been unusually high.  It is a constant battle to keep that boat moored at a decent position!  While there, I noticed that the ospreys were out in full force,  A number of them were soaring high on the stiff winds.  I guess this made for easy gliding but had to put a damper on their fishing.  With the waves being churned at a heavy rate, the best odds of their getting breakfast had to be in the Bayou.  There the water was a bit more protected  and surely fish had to seek the calmer water.  I watched for a bit and, sure enough, a few ospreys headed to the backwaters.  They were smart enough to realize that fishing in the open waters would be a daunting task.

  A lone osprey sat high on the dead pine tree that overlooks the Bayou.  The winds continually ruffled its feathers and occasionally nearly toppled the poor bird.  Not once, however, did the bird leave its watch-post.  It answered the high-pitched calls of the other birds but made no attempt at fishing for itself.  I pondered this for a few minutes before I realized that this was a female osprey.  Looking closely through the camera lens, I could see the telltale spotted "necklace" of dark feathers around her neck. Ahh, that explained a lot!  Mate-feeding is a sort of ritual that the ospreys perform before nesting.  The male will bring the female all of her food before and during nesting.  She will often leave the nest site to eat his offerings from a nearby perch.  This is what our female friend was doing on this blustery day.  She patiently waited until her mate brought her a tasty tidbit.  

  I am afraid that the male osprey had a bit of trouble catching a fish for his ladylove today.  Hopefully, he was one of the smart ones that ventured into the still waters of the Bayou for his hunting expedition.  If not, Mrs. Osprey may have gone hungry during this windy day!

March Winds!

Whoever coined the the little ditty, "March winds and April showers bring May flowers!" sure was not talking about today's gale! A slow moving storm system has been trudging through the area for the past few days and it is still far from over. The winds have been tremendous but so far, no rain save for a sprinkle now and again. The wind is enough to keep one inside, which does not make me particularly happy. I would much rather be out and about the hillside than stuck inside doing household drudgery. My free-spirited-country-girl side wishes to be running barefoot through the soft, cool grass instead doing laundry or mopping up the kitchen floor! The winds are nigh on thirty miles per hour from the southeast which makes it comfortable in the house but not so outside. There is too much sand being whipped up from the ground and the chance of a limb being knocked from a tree onto my head makes it a wise decision to stay put. I did, however, hang one small load of towels on the clothesline just to watch them flutter in the wind! This amused me for a grand total of about two minutes until I saw my clean towels ripped from the pins and flung to the ground! The laundry had to be redone merely because of my momentary lapse in good judgement!

All of this wind is not helping the garden either! That saying keeps running through my mind...wind...rain..flowers. Nope..that is not how it works! I hate to be the one to disprove such a popular saying about spring but instead of bringing flowers, it made them go away! My wisterias were both in full bloom before this started but now the blossoms are all floating in the pond! The surface of the water is a lovely shade of lavender but I presume that the dragonfly larvae, toads and green tree frogs are a tad miffed about sharing their watery abode with thousands of decaying petals. There is nothing that I can do to make it any better until this gale passes so in the meantime, I will settle for a purple pond!

The grapefruit blossoms on the other hand must be a mite sturdier as they are not succumbing to the stiff breeze! All of the citrus trees are in full bloom and seem to be setting tiny fruit! If all goes well, there should be a great harvest this fall! Son seems to be just thrilled with this news as he is the one that has to climb to the top of the thirty foot tall grapefruit tree to hand pick each fruit! It seems as if we just got finished canning the grapefruit and now more are setting on each branch! It appears that there will be plenty for the family with an abundance to share with others! Thank goodness for tough blooms!

The wind is not predicted to let up for the next several days and even perhaps get some worse before abating. Folks...batten down the hatches! It looks like a wild night on the Bayou!