Yesterday I mentioned the dog(days) of summer; today it’s going to be the birds you saw flying around over these last many months: ospreys.

I like everything about them. They are fearless, they are willing to let you come (relatively) close, they have an interesting way of adapting to current conditions. They usually lay three eggs that both parents tend to but that hatch not all at once. The staggering of chicks ensures that one is bigger than the two others and if there is a food shortage it will make it sure it is fed first. That way during times of scarcity only one bird will survive in an environment that can only carry that load. If there’s plenty then all three will thrive and fledge into a world that has food and room for all of them.

A world, that is, that is not poisoned by chemicals. Ospreys were threatened because commonly used agricultural pesticides thinned their eggshells and hampered reproductive strength. They have now come back in force because of tight regulations that protected the species, and many involved naturalists who built osprey “gardens” – platforms in the landscape where they tend to their nests out of harm’s way. In Portland you can find them reliably on Sauvie Island and at the Tualatin River Wildlife Preserve, the two places where the photographs were taken.

The links below show a video of these fishhawks  and an article that discusses the results of protectionist measures. And I quote gleefully from the NYT: For myself, I also love ospreys because they give me a chance to remind the Republicans who generally own seaside real estate (and covet ospreys) that these birds are a living reminder of how well government regulation can work. We saved ospreys not just through laws regulating pesticides and protecting migratory birds, but also through the Clean Water Act of 1972, which turned the Connecticut River, and many others, from an open cesspool to a precious natural and recreational resource.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/osprey

Ospreys are considered a type of eagle in many Native American tribes, and are accorded the same respect bald and golden eagles are. In coastal tribes where ospreys are most commonly seen, they sometimes play ‘police’ or guardian roles in traditional legends, and seeing one is sometimes considered to be a warning of danger to come – or so tells me the Native American Legends website. http://www.native-languages.org/legends-osprey.htm

Well, I don’t need warnings of dangers to come, am well aware of them as it is – all I have to do is look at may laundry drying outside sprinkled with ash that is falling from our skies as a result of the forest fires.