CATEGORY: SAILING
PHOTO: RAVEN AND OSPREY

Another time.  Another cove.  (Another season, another reason for makin’ whoopee)  Another neighboring boat.  Another cliff–only this time the cliff was not so high, nor were we so close.  We were far enough away from it to see mounds of mossy ground at its top and another cliff rising from the moss at right angles to the lower one.

As we entered this cove, the other boat was already anchored and its owner was in the cockpit with his binoculars.  He motioned us to tie up along side him.  As we did so a raucous racket was going on up the cliff.  Our new neighbor explained that there was an osprey nest at the top of the upper cliff.  A pair of ravens had attacked the nest while the parent ospreys were gone, and they were taking the baby ospreys from the nest and dropping them on the rocks below.  We assumed this was preparatory to eating them.  The parent ospreys had arrived soon after the ravens and now a noisy fight was in progress.

The ospreys were out-weighed by the ravens, but as we watched this aerial battle, three other ospreys arrived to shift the odds.  Then such a battle as did ensue!  It was World War Two all over again.  The birds screaming was definitely equal to the noise of gunners in an aerial dog fight, but the birds maneuvering was more agile.  Finally the ospreys drove the ravens away.  The three auxiliary ospreys followed them while the parent ospreys returned to their nest and what was left of their family.  Since we could not see into the nest, we were not sure if there were any of their family left at all.  It was such a sad fate for babies left at home alone.