It seems as if a couple of interlopers has invaded the osprey territory. For the past week or so, there has been a lot of dramatic aerial shows above the Little Bayou House. The "home" pair have already been together for three years. Now, two young males have moved in to try and woo the female. The older male that has been here for a number of years is in the battle of his life! Being more adept because of age, he would be able to dismiss a single interloper but having two to deal with at the same time is something else again. The dominant male never gets a rest. When he and his ladylove awake in the morning, they immediately head to the water to fish. She sits in the dead pine calling to him while he tries to find the finest fish available to bring to her. This is part of their courtship each year. While he is out over the water, the other two younger males are doing display flights in front of the female. So far, she has not been amused and has even gone so far as to help her mate evict the two.
A couple of days ago, I was erecting yet another fence for grapevines when I heard the screaming overhead. Looking up, there were five ospreys just above the pine tops. The resident couple, a younger female and the two interlopers. One of the young males was relentless in trying to woo the resident female. This did not set well and both older birds attacked. Needless to say, the interloper was sent on his way to find another home. This left one problem for the osprey pair to attend. After a brief rest, the pair flew at the other interloper but he took refuge just down the shoreline and refused to leave. His attention had now turned to the new female.
This morning, the aerial attacks were in full force again. The piercing screams continued throughout the day and I noticed that the "deported" male was back again. The older pair seemed to be sure that they were not going to be split as they were adding to their nest but the "new couple" was still a bit iffy. The battles were between the two young males over the young female. Hopefully, the birds will work out their problems and get this nesting stuff underway. It appears that we may have yet another nesting pair in the area and a couple of broods of little ospreys in a few months!
It seems to be "Month of the Wasps" here on the Bayou. First, there were the red paper wasps that built their nest in the potted cedar tree. This tree was overgrown with the jasmine causing me to snip, tug, hoist and generally be hugging the tree for about an hour. Ordinarily, these wasps are rather foul tempered critters and will sting you at the drop of a hat. For some reason, they felt sorry for the old lady trying to do a bit of yard work and I received nary a sting.
Then, Mark and I came across a yellow jacket nest. These wasps, too, have nasty tempers and will attack just for the sake of being ornery. The nest was huge and I was thankful that we were able to kill the wasps before anyone haphazardly stumbled upon the nest. Again, nary a sting was received.
Yesterday, we decided to rip up the small deck. Some of the boards were getting a tad rotten so instead of repairing, we removed it. While I was stacking boards, Mark called my attention to yet another nest. This time it was a mud nest that had been accidentally knocked loose. My first reaction was that this was some sort of mud dauber's nest (which are a type of wasp) but it looked quite different than any I have ever seen. I had to do a bit of research and I am still not sure exactly what type of wasp made the nest. The nearest thing seems to be a wasp called a spider wasp. It is a type of mud dauber that mainly preys upon spiders. Well, that could be a good thing since we do seem to have a lot of brown widow and black widow spiders about the place. I figure that we could use all the help we can get in thinning those buggers out of the area! Again, no stings but these are rather docile wasps unlike their cousins.
It does seem as though we have more wasps, bees and generally just more insects than usual this summer. Perhaps our lack of winters, as of late, accounts for this change. As far as the wasps go, it was definitely a happy thought that we have avoided stings.
