feathered power

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And speaking of ospreys! And sheer feathered power! Feathers? Power? It's difficult to imagine something as light and wispy as a feather and brute force in the same package, but in an osprey they coalesce beautifully.

Ker-splash! The white and brown bird-of-prey dives into the ocean surf disappearing completely under the water then fights its way above the surface and flies to a nearby tree carrying a chunky, struggling fish that can weight almost as much as the bird. Such raw power.

One of Audubon's most dramatic prints is that of the coastal "fishing hawk" carrying away its catch: a weakfish. (The origin of its name is based on the weakness of the mouth muscles, which often cause a hook to tear free, allowing the fish to get away. Escaping an osprey's strong talons would be another matter.)

Karen Sue and I recently saw several ospreys at Cape May. One afternoon, while I was lying in the grass, one flew low over my head, against an azure sky, past the famous red and white lighthouse. The fierce hunter was carrying a rather large fish just the way Audubon portrayed the species. He was a keen-eyed observer. I whooped and hollered with each heavy wing beat.

Oh, to be alive at such a place and time!

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