The Great Osprey Mystery
For as long as I’ve been visiting the lighthouse (six years now), a family of osprey have lived on a platform at the base of the lantern dome. I’ve never messed with them and they’ve never messed with me aside from perching on the ledge of the keeper’s roof and staring at me one night while I babysat the boat. We were both annoyed by the other’s existence on the lighthouse (they’re messy and I’m intruding), but learned to just ignore each other. Well, and I was left to clean up their messes of sticks and fish bones and heads and of course, the ever-present poop.
I tried to get out to the lighthouse two weeks ago, but the water was too rough to attempt to tie up and board. As an aside, when oh when will summer really begin and the weather cooperate?! As I circled the light with two friends, a completely unexpected and horrifying sight caught our eye. A giant osprey was caught mid-railing facing out just to the left of the winch between the double davits and obviously dead in a spread-eagle pose. How in the world did that happen?! He had to have dove straight down and out to get caught like that, but knows the lighthouse since it was his (or her) home, so something else must have been at play. The high winds we’ve had? I have no idea. I wasn’t able to get up and do something about it at the time, so I hoped mother nature would lend a helping hand and somehow pry it out before the next trip out.
No such luck as we went out Friday with a plan for access prior to the volunteer day with the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society. The bird was still there, still stuck, but had slipped to the base of the railing and was dangling over the edge.
I had been wondering since ospreys mate for life what the mate would do? Would it stay? Would it go? What about the babies that were sure to be born soon? My questions were answered yesterday during the volunteer day. I made my way to the lantern gallery to find a mess of sticks all over the deck. The platform the nest had been on was completely clean. Weird? Did the mate have a fit and knock its own nest down, eggs and all (I found two broken in the mess of sticks). Was some other sinister force in play that killed both of them? I contemplated the mystery and those questions while bagging all the sticks for removal.
I can’t imagine the storms were responsible for this tragedy? I mourn for the birds, but am going to rush out and get a Bird-X Peller Pro and stick some spikes on the platform. The original inhabitants have moved out and now it’s time to claim the structure for humans — while hopefully keeping it a lot cleaner!
RIP Osprey Family. I’ll always wonder what happened to you!