Standing at land’s end
atop a soaring precipice
jutting into the Pacific
I’m observing an Osprey
aka sea hawk
a magnificent single species
with four subspecies
these creatures
have ridden earth’s thermals
over eleven million years
fishing every type water
of every continent on the globe
the one I’m watching
is suspended in flight
high overhead
130 feet above the ocean
aloft on the westerly breeze
billowing up
then wafting down the cliff
just then
a tight wing tuck
a silent dive
effortlessly
it snatches a surprised trout
from its water’s home
using its deft skill
with talons
turns the fish
headlong into the wind
inherently aware of aerodynamics
he’s taking it back
to its stick-built
life long nest
high in the top
of a conifer at water’s edge
I’m mesmerized
this is a younger Osprey
though it will make this dive
over and over
in its 25 years of life
always taking the catch back
to it’s monogamous mate
this is a love story
he and his mate
will remain together
during their lives
and may travel 150,000 miles
including extensive migrations
always returning to home nest
he first attracted his mate
performing an aerial display
known as the “sky-dance”
he hovered
wobbled in flight
and screamed for attention
all in the name of love
snapping out of this recall
I am suddenly taken
by the breathtaking beauty
stretching before me
undulating azure blue
that’s falling away
over earth’s edge
into forever
unfurling below
a white ribbon of sand
fragile
pristine
a breath between eternal sea
and towering rock facades
flanking left and right
in sweeping panorama
the Oregon Coast
in all it’s majesty
this is my summer perch
up with the Osprey
since first I discovered it
thirty three years ago
my thoughts are adrift
enveloping me once again
just then
the breeze freshens
disrupts my reverie
tosses my hair
buffers my chest
I shudder
bracing against vertigo
swept up in a feeling
as an Osprey
rockets down the cliff face
oh to be un-tethered
weightless
no longer earthbound
like that magnificent raptor
my eyes close
my soul lifts
takes wing
soars skyward
I feel the wind on my face
I’m flying!
*
rob kistner © 2023
Poetry at: dVerse
Come fly with Michael Hedges!
NOTE: Ospreys are amazing raptors. They require nest sites in open surroundings for easy approach, with a wide, sturdy base and safety from ground predators (such as raccoons). Nests are usually built in treetops, or crotches between large branches and trunks; also on cliff edges, or human-built platforms, such as forest fire spotting towers, and large power poles of towers, generally in the wilderness, or isolated areas very near wilderness. Osprey pairs return to the same nest each year and add new nest materials to the old nest each year. The only exception is when their nest is obliterated behond reclamation, either natually, such as by forest fire, or by man. The male osprey collects the sticks, branches, and debri, while the female assembles thd nest.
You’ve been privileged to watch ospreys hunting!
A number of times Jane. Not only from Ecola Point on the Pacific Ocean, but several times up in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, on a lake my son Justin and I used to fish, at the Mt Jefferson timber line, called Olallie Lake. The most amazing Osprey experience I ever had was on Olallie, when an Osprey dove silently out of the sky, and snatched a Cutthroat Trout out of the lake, about 10 feet from our boat, while my son and I were fishing. It was mind-blowing when the big raptor dove, talons out, and grabbed that fish. It had to be a 4 or 5 pound trout, to the best of my son and my estimation. Breathtaking! 🙂
Sadly much of the gorgeous forest around Olallie Lake was devastated by the Lionshead forest fire on Labor Day in 2020. It was a tragedy that will take the region years to recover from. I’m actually glad that I can no longer physically go into that formerly beautiful area of Oregon to fish, because it would break my heart. I just wanna remember it the way it was. 🙁
That is an epic poem, Rob, and I was so lost in the description of the osprey and its flight (and the thought that you actually watched it) that I didn’t think to look for some animal architecture until I saw the lines about the trout’s water home. And then you surprised me with the osprey’s nest. I love the short lines that pause the poem before the dive, and was interested to read that the osprey’s stick-built nest is its home for life.
Ospreys are amazing Kim. They require nest sites in open surroundings for easy approach, with a wide, sturdy base and safety from ground predators (such as raccoons). Nests are usually built in treetops, or crotches between large branches and trunks; also on cliff edges, or human-built platforms, such as forest fire spotting towers, and large power poles of towers, generally in the wilderness, or isolated areas very near wilderness. Osprey pairs return to the same nest each year and add new nest materials to the old nest each year. The only exception is when their nest is obliterated behond reclamation, either natually, such as by forest fire, or by man.
The male osprey collects the sticks, branches, and debri, while the female assembles thd nest.
How beautiful Rob ??
Thank you AJ… 🙂
Magnificent birds. So amazing to watch diving into the water!
Great poem, my friend!
Thank you Dwight. They are my favorite fish hunting raptor. My favorite mammal hunting raptor, at a wing span of nearly 5 feet, is the Great Horned Owl. Nocturnal, it is truly exciting, almost frightening, to hear a Great Horned swooshing swiftly through the forest at night, on the hunt.
Rob, this is stunning! Your poetry and photos belong in a nature magazine. Thanks so much. I enjoyed learning more about the Osprey.
Thank you Colleen. Not all the photos I post are ones I have taken. Some I find as royalty free — but I always do considerable creative Photoshopping to make even my found images pop on the page… so to that degree, all my posted images are personalized images.
Hmm. Not sure how I missed this one! It may be because I have seven Mr. Linky windows open in my web browser.??????????????? Still playing catch-up with all the poetry prompts. Anyways, I love your amazing poem. I, too, was captured by the imagery of the osprey and smiled about his love story. Magnificent creations. No matter if personalized, these photos are stunning.????????
Thank you Melissa… 🙂 I write all the words, and present the photos, always Photoshopped for excellent impact, whether taken or found. I am glad you enjoy my image & verse… 🙂
I have only seen ospreys once and at a far distance, i envy what you have watched.
Osprey (aka seahawks/fishawks) are just so plentiful here in the PacNW Björn, that the Seattle professional NFL football team is named the Seattle Seahawks. All the years I used to hike and fish the Ordgon high mountain lakes, and hike the cliffs of the Oregon Pacific Ocean coast, I saw them regularly. Often I would watch them dive and snatch fish. It mesmerized me, and is one of the things robbed me by my failing health, that I sorely miss. I used to occasionally encounter other raptors, like both Golden and Bald Eagles, and Peregrine Falcons, but not as often as Osprey. I love the remarkable agility of the Osprey. At a 6 foot wing span, the Osprey is approximately twice the size of the Peregrine Falcon, and not quite as fast, but close — and just as nimble. The Peregrine falcon is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in the Pacific Coast Range. But the eagles, with a wing span approaching 8 feet, were the most majestic looking in flight. The eagles are also good at fishing, just not as nimble as the Osprey.