On Osprey Time

Ophelia and fledgling, courtesy of Karel and Cindy Sedlacek.  Ophelia, the grand dame of Salt Point, having completed her parental duties for the year  began her 4K+/- migration to South America. (A single osprey can log more than  160,000 miles migrating during its 20-year lifetime!) It had been a long spring and summer for her, spending all her time nurturing and enduring harsh conditions to protect  her growing family. This is her eighth breeding season with Orpheus, and they have  produced twenty fledglings, one of which died in an accident.  Earlier in the week she soared high into the north wind, letting it take her south through  Pennsylvania. Ophelia will migrate down the Appalachian mountains making use of the  thermals forming on the mountain sides to glide during much of her journey. She’ll head   toward the coast of the Carolinas and continue south along the coastline to the Florida  peninsula. From there she will go to Cuba and island hop her way to Venezuela.  Crossing th