What I Saw Today

The Lovely One and I rode our bikes to the park today. It's a park right along the ocean, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. There's a little secluded pond there, far from the lighthouse and the tourist buses, a quiet spot where we sat down in the grass to have our lunch.

Well, it wasn't long before we saw the osprey, circling slowly above the pond, peering down into the murky brown water. We watched him glide gradually lower on wings that spanned five feet from tip to tip. Sometimes he would sort of pull up, like a cartoon bird putting on the brakes, and you could see his talons begin to open up beneath him, but then, changing his mind and fluttering his powerful wings just so, he would ease back into his slow circling glide.

So around and around he went, patient and careful. Then, again he pulled up, like a swimmer abruptly changing directions. There was a moment's pause, then suddenly he was rocketing toward the water. The sound when he crashed the still surface was like when you throw a brick or large boulder in the water. For a long moment then he was gone, and I shouted, foolishly, "Dude!" Then it came plunging upward, beating its powerful wings first against water, then against air, and into the great wide sun-bright heavens he soared, carrying a squirming six-inch goldflish in his talons.

That was the most exciting thing I've witnessed since Gandalf fought the Balrog in the first Lord of the Rings flick!