The next National Geographic Magazine article in the August, 1932, issue was of particular interest and enjoyment to me. Yesterday, the Robin family left the nest in my front sidewalk's holly bush. Every morning for the past several weeks, when I've gone out to retrieve my newspaper from the driveway, Mother Robin flew off in a huff and protested until I went back through my front door. Then she jumped back onto the next. Yesterday, I came out the door and the three nearly full-grown 'babies' jumped off the nest! What a surprise! Now I know none of them will return. But I really enjoyed their spring show this year!
Captain C.W.R. Knight was visiting Scotland and found out that the last of the Osprey hawks had been wiped out by human egg thieves twenty years before 1932. He went to an American nature preserve on Long Island, New York, U.S.A., in hopes of both photographing the Ospreys and possibly attempting to transplant them in Scotland. He succeeded in both endeavors.
As hawks, Ospreys are much larger than Robins yet not as large as our Bald Eagles. They are strict fish eaters, diving to get their live prey. Captain Knight carefully built a 'blind' to photograph the birds. He reported that east coast American farmers like having Ospreys build nests on their land because they never bother their chickens and chase away other hawks which would disturb them. These farmers sometimes put wagon wheels on poles in hopes of attracting the Ospreys.
The quality of Ospreys that most impressed Captain Knight was the tenderness with which the parent birds fed their young. Even when the hatched birds were nearly full-grown, their parents would feed them until they were fully capable of diving into the nearby water, emerging with a fish, giving their feathers a quick shake-off of water, then majestically flying off. Quite talented birds!
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