Osprey
And in fact there is the concerned parent in question.
Truly amazing seeing these birds down here, where all the tugboats dock. I have seen ospreys up along the Palisades, but we've seen 3 active nests today, right on the fringes of Staten Island.
One of the osprey amazes me even more, though. Once I've moved myself on out of the vicinity that seems to bug the ospreys, I look back to see what Steve & Tom are doing - Lyn & Dan are up ahead.
As I sit looking, I notice a cormorant flying low in my direction, at an oblique angle - it's clearly going to pass by me at fairly close range.
Then I notice that there's an osprey beyond the cormorant.
Then I notice that the osprey is following the exact same flight path as the cormorant...now I'm curious...
The osprey starts closing in; the cormorant is flying flat-out but the osprey's faster & is catching up...they're still heading roughly in my direction...and they can't be much more than 50 feet away from me when the osprey catches up and makes a grab!
The cormorant DIVES! Down into the water at the last instant - the osprey peels off & heads skyward, kee kee keeing away. A moment later the cormorant resurfaces, shaking it's head.
I honestly think I may have seen a couple of black feathers flying there at the last instant.
I have no idea what was going on there. Ospreys eat fish, not cormorants.
I've actually asked around at a couple of osprey websites & the suggestion that frankly appeals to me the most is that maybe the osprey was just having some fun persecuting the cormorant.
Not very scientific, but I like it. Maybe that "kee kee kee!" in the peelout was actually more of a "hee hee hee!".
Anyways, that was the most amazing moment of the day - wish I could've shared it with the gang, but although I yelled "OH MY GOD!" loudly enough to get everyone's attention as the osprey was making the grab, but that was an instant too late.
But wow, wow, wow.
See, I wasn't even going to tell that now & I couldn't not do it!
Truly amazing seeing these birds down here, where all the tugboats dock. I have seen ospreys up along the Palisades, but we've seen 3 active nests today, right on the fringes of Staten Island.
One of the osprey amazes me even more, though. Once I've moved myself on out of the vicinity that seems to bug the ospreys, I look back to see what Steve & Tom are doing - Lyn & Dan are up ahead.
As I sit looking, I notice a cormorant flying low in my direction, at an oblique angle - it's clearly going to pass by me at fairly close range.
Then I notice that there's an osprey beyond the cormorant.
Then I notice that the osprey is following the exact same flight path as the cormorant...now I'm curious...
The osprey starts closing in; the cormorant is flying flat-out but the osprey's faster & is catching up...they're still heading roughly in my direction...and they can't be much more than 50 feet away from me when the osprey catches up and makes a grab!
The cormorant DIVES! Down into the water at the last instant - the osprey peels off & heads skyward, kee kee keeing away. A moment later the cormorant resurfaces, shaking it's head.
I honestly think I may have seen a couple of black feathers flying there at the last instant.
I have no idea what was going on there. Ospreys eat fish, not cormorants.
I've actually asked around at a couple of osprey websites & the suggestion that frankly appeals to me the most is that maybe the osprey was just having some fun persecuting the cormorant.
Not very scientific, but I like it. Maybe that "kee kee kee!" in the peelout was actually more of a "hee hee hee!".
Anyways, that was the most amazing moment of the day - wish I could've shared it with the gang, but although I yelled "OH MY GOD!" loudly enough to get everyone's attention as the osprey was making the grab, but that was an instant too late.
But wow, wow, wow.
See, I wasn't even going to tell that now & I couldn't not do it!
