This is a photograph that owes its existence to possibly one person: Gil Fernandez.
In the early ‘70s, Gil (and his wife Jo) almost singlehandedly became responsible for the restoration of ospreys in Massachusetts. Decimated by DDT, the ospreys were down to a handful of nesting pairs. Gil built nesting poles. If an osprey started a nest on the marsh floor, Gil would build a nest platform right there. He was relentless in his support of these endangered birds. Thirty years later over 70 nesting pairs were on the Westport River and over 300 pairs across Massachusetts.
Gil died last month, a few days after his 95th birthday. When we were walking off the ice, after constructing this new Osprey platform in Westborough, I didn’t know that Gil had passed away just a few days earlier. Bill Davis was telling me stories of this guy, who into his 90’s would be visiting nest sites, removing material that would be dangerous to the chicks, and, in general, keeping an eye on the birds.
Without Gil’s passion for Osprey, I doubt that we’d have nesting pairs on the Assabet River today. I won’t look at these nests quite the same way again.