Ospreys, Near and Far

The Osprey is among the most widespread of all birds, familiar and more or less common on six continents (it’s rarest, perhaps, in western Europe). I’ve now seen two of them in the past 5 days, under circumstances as different as night and day.

Saturday, Judy and Alison and I watched one soar and half-heartedly flutter over upstate New York’s Oneida Lake, surrounded by the red and yellow leaves of autumn glowing warm and bright against a dull sky. And then this morning on my way to the office came the second one: this time flopping disconsolately over Tucson’s Rillito River, a wide gash of dry sand under relentless blue skies. By now I’m sure it’s dining happily on the Sea of Cortez!