Raising Aussie Osprey #9

I'm sure a lot of people reading this thread think it is just a bunch of crappie.

I ling to tuna in to this thread several times a day as laughter is the best medicine for my floundering stickleback.

oh this is a lot of carp!!

Well, I tuna into the weather channel Margaret, and bass to keep of the ice. Ice breaking in chunk, no skating for you.
Octopus supper on, talk later.

This message was edited Apr 7, 2009 3:55 PM

I think this post is nearly full to the bream.

Yes, I'll do something about it as soon as I sweep the floor.

Are you almost fin-ished?

All these comments are so clever and witty, I feel like a morwong in comparison.

hahaha I love this!

I trouted through this thread, and think something fishy is going on here.

Wahoo. I have an update on the Ospreys. Aussie is still around. Madam X rang me yesterday to say that she (Aussie) was on the branch at the nest with a fish. Took her time eating it and stayed there for a couple of hours. I dropped in on my way home from lunch, but Aussie had just left. Madam X hasn't seen any other activity lately. Hoki doki, that's all for now.

Yeh, Burn, I think you're right. I was beginning to smell a wrasse

Oh my cod.

Woooo Hoooo Go Aussie Go!!!

Hey, that's good news!!!

Wonderful! Thanks! and please thank Madam X too!

Yippie!

Glad that is was Aussie on the branch and not Madame X!! That cod have been bad!

LOL.

Was I ever discouraged when I stood on the scale after a long winter of being immobile. It's good to have spring again.

Glad your back OP!!!

OPB, let's go and do some gardening! Happy Easter, happy spring!

Welcome Back OP!!!

Oh my ya'll are sooo witty. good to hear Aussie is still around and has learned to fish.
I have a question.. I just bought a new canon camera and am going to buy lenses. Anyone have suggestions to get some wonderful pics like Margaret's ... Ms Ed, I know you have taken great butterfly pics..
Thanks,
Elaine

Yes, welcome back OP.

I wasn't going to update until there was something really exciting to report, but now it's been bumped, I can report that I was at the nest two days ago and an Osprey flew past the nest and flew back in the opposite direction ten minutes later with a fish in its claws, but went to a tree at the northern end of the bay. It happened in the blink of an eye on both occasions so no pix, but I'm 99% certain it was Aussie. I dropped in there a little while ago, again on the off chance that I may see one of the birds, but alas, no.

Elaine, I use a 300mm Canon L 1:4 IS with a Canon 1x4 extender, taking it to an effective 420mm. What I really like is that I can hand hold it. I think there are a couple of bird watchers that want the 400mm f5.6 and one I know has recently purchased it. I don't know if it would be hand-holdable, if that's important to you, but it is apparently super sharp and has super fast autofocus, but doesn't have IS. Everything's a compromise.

thanks for the info. still studying here. and wishing I could have kept my tx money to spend... sighhhhh

Elaine

Hi Guy's, your a bunch of Larrikins, sure you haven't been on the turps. I love it.
Marg, keep up the good work. You must have a great deal of patience. I have been following
Aussie Osprey along with you, it's great.
Your Aussie Mate
Hel

Hi Hel, talking of a bunch of larrikins, you've got a hanging basket full of them right there. I'm so glad you have enjoyed Aussie's story. Things are very quiet at the moment, but I've started taking photos of the empty nest each time I go there so I can gauge when the nest repairs begin. Are there any Ospreys around where you are?

Hi Marg, yes we have them here. Quite a few nests have been relocated around the Coffs Harbour area
also at Ballina. I think it was because they were in danger. It seem's to have worked OK.

ahhh ummm, that's it! I think I want to relocate to Autralia! So I can garden, and seeing all these beautiful native birds! Ausie is a must see. :-)

OK Lily, you're on for a house swap. If I lived on a lake with a deck and a jetty, I'd think I'd died and gone to heaven.

...and vice versa, If I can lay eyes on Ausie especially after you've given us the priviledge to watch her grows. Then plant all the Queen Crepe Myrtles all around my home? Not to mention other perennials there -- Ahhhhhh. Some one please wake me up. Oh Marg. how about a month long house swap? I don't have one of those seadoos, but an old bassboat. Will do the swap. :-)

I had an email this morning from the gentleman who banded Old Ma Osprey back on the 20th November 1990. He said it had been a beautiful morning and she was the biggest and heaviest of three siblings in the nest, which was at the south-western tip of Garden Island. This is a photo of her on New Year's Eve last year.

In memory of our beloved 'Ole Ma Osprey. Thanks Margaret for her picture for us to remember her by.

Summertime in Australia~
MargaretK~love your photos and journal; do you think they will return?

Thanks, Kiska. I'm glad to see you're back. I see things are getting a bit nippy up where you are in that incredibly beautiful part of the world. The saga continues with the ospreys. Can I provide you with the link to the latest series. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1042463/ We're currently on thread #6. You'll be able to catch up when you're snowed in.

Madame X and I were given a grand tour of Garden Island on Tuesday. There was quite a poignancy to seeing the nest where Old Ma Osprey was hatched. It is in an isolated are, exposed to the full force of the southwesterly winds. It didn't appear as if the nest had had any recent activity. The nest is at the middle left of the picture.

I've heard that a dead, banded osprey which was blind in one eye was found on the beach at Rockingham, which is on the mainland and looks out to Garden Island. (Another report was that it was found on the river embankment a few km upstream from "our" nest). I contacted the Australian Bird and Bat Banding authority in Canberra, but the finding certainly wasn't reported to them. I'm still trying to follow that up. If it was Old Ma Osprey, she was approximately 45km as the crow flies from her patch of the Swan River and was trying to make her way back to where she was hatched.

I can just imagine, how that touched you, about Old Ma. Hope you can find out more, about her.
Is that what they'll normally do, go back to where, they were born, to end they journey? That's very interesting.

The scenery is beautiful as the beautiful 'Ole Ma Osprey. I can visualized the lone Osprey tried as she might on her journey home to her birth place--for her final rest...

Oh Margaret, as much as I enjoy of every minute watching Harmony's development and Big Hook, along with 'Ole Dad Osprey. Remembering 'Ole Ma who once was part of how this family came to be. She's sorely missed! Thank you for sharing those moment with me.