Last year the Osprey gave us both thrills and sadness. The thrills came from our discovering an active and productive nest on the Assabet River on the border between Acton and Concord. The sadness came from the failure of the nest in Westborough (for the second year running).
This year, both nests are back and active. We are hoping the best for the balance of the summer and we’ll keep our eye out for fledglings in August.
Our trips to the nests haven’t been as frequent as in prior years — something I will correct next year. One thing I noted this year in Westborough is that the female is extremely skittish. So I have received a lesson in not assuming anything about animal behavior: I approached the nest in the manner that I have done for the past 4-5 years and the female left the nest with the nestling in it. I’ve never seen the female abandon the nest like that. They “normally” will make threat calls (i.e., yell at you) until you retreat to what they consider a safe distance. The end result is that getting close to this nest, with the current occupants, will be much harder than it used to be.