WalkAbout: Carl Cowan Park

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Special thanks to those that attended my recent Ijams WalkAbout at Carl Cowan park. Our topic was basic birdwatching 101.

Although the woodland passerines were fairly quiet, we did find several interesting lake-loving birds including a double-creasted cormorant swimming and diving in the water and an osprey that made several passes overhead. It's possible a bald eagle was spotted as well.

Every time I see an osprey, I'm reminded of Audubon's famous print of one carrying a recently caught fish. Both with mouths agape; one of exaltation, the other of asphyxiation. Pretty soon the two would have become one.



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Ijams WalkAbouters at Carl Cowan Park

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ospreys three

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I heard from Wayne Mallinger recently:

"I've seen several ospreys near Northshore Drive in Knoxville. Three on different occasions. Every time I pass Northshore exit if I have time I pull off and do a quick scan of the ponds for any birds in flight. I was lucky enough to capture a photo of one searching for an easy catch before he saw me and went to a tree and waited for me to leave so he could continue feeding."

"Also note: I read your post about the assassin bug. Thanks! A couple of weeks ago while I was mowing my yard I felt a burning sensation on my left wrist. I looked and saw what I described as a mosquito on steroids. I brushed it away as fast as I could but too late....it took about 10 days for the redness and itching to go away....nasty bite. I now know what it was!"

Wayne is the local photographer who sent me the five great photos of Gulf Coast birds I posted in the middle of last month. Look for Gulf Tragedy 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Thanks, Wayne.

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flyway

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On a recent visit from Chicago, Harald Schmidt had a good morning. Last Sunday, he was on the river at Alcoa Highway and Topside Road.

Harald e-mails, “At one point I could hear some birds making a lot of noise in a nearby tree. While walking closer, I saw this very large bird sitting in the tree. When he saw me he took off and I was only to get one photo.”

In addition to the bald eagle, Harald also got photos of an osprey, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture and finally a great blue heron.

There was a lot of airborne traffic that morning.

Thanks, Harald.

- Photos by Harald Schmidt

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great catch

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And speaking of fish-eating birds of prey, recently I posted about watching an osprey flying overhead with its lunch at Cape May.

Sue Wagoner sent me the above photos she took around the same time at Folly Beach in South Carolina. She was lucky enough to catch the bird fighting its way out of the surf and just after it had lifted off carrying its meal. I've seen osprey plunge into the water in one of our placid East Tennessee lakes, but taking on the ocean surf adds an extra layer of danger. Several years ago I saw the same display of strength several times just off Cherry Grove Beach north of Folly.

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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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osprey-eyed

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On the surface, David Gessner’s wonderful book, “Return of the Osprey” is about just that: the return of a thriving, sustainable population of osprey, once known as “fish hawks,” to the Atlantic coastline.

The author digs in and watches a season of osprey nestings and the raising of their families on Cape Cod.

“A new clarity illuminates the days. Honeysuckle sweetens the air and the post oak’s leaves wave big and waxy, no longer mere drooping half leaves. We approach the solstice, the annual climax of light, the days when we see longest and clearest. The other night a luminescent apple core, cleanly split in half, stood in for the moon, and later fireflies sparkled. I sleep rocked by a larger rhythm, the ocean breathing in and out. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand why ospreys choose to live near water. On some nights I walk down to watch the world’s eye sink: the sun drops into the water of the bay, staining the sky with pinks, yellows, and oranges,” writes Gessner.

And there it hangs. Any great book is about more than it purports to be, and Gessner’s is about slowing down and actually seeing: longest and clearest. Seeing with the heighten eyesight of a raptor.

“An osprey’s vision is almost eight times greater than a human being’s but that only hints at their acuity,” he reports. Call it awareness, totally in tune with their natural world.

As Gessner ensconces to watch ospreys and the marshland around them he writes, “That’s the central paradox of slowing down: it leads to excitement that is often dazzling. What, after all, surprises and delights us? Speed. Growth. Quantity. Vibrancy. Variety. These are the qualities the natural world presents if we simply sit still and open our eyes.”

To seal the deal, Gessner goes to Harvard’s rare book collection at Houghton Library and visits some of the handwritten journals of the master of transcendence Ralph Waldo Emerson, who viewed the world with a “transparent eye.” Emerson is noted for being the cool analytic, free of emotion, but Gessner notes that the handwriting of the master of the well-measured sentence becomes “less legible when he grew excited and rushed.” We sense the pounding, enthralled heart of the engaged Ralph Waldo and then Gessner and, now, even myself.

Published in 2001, “Return of the Osprey” is a superb, textured read.

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