An osprey, a great fish eater
I walked along Gaspee Point,* in Warwick, R.I., late this morning. The ospreys, in my first sighting this year, are back, and they are rebuilding their platform nest. It looked as if the male was bringing some small branches, clasped in his talons, toward the nest (perched high on a telephone pole). He hovered in the northwest wind and then dropped down onto the nesting platform.
I walked to Occupessatuxet Cove, toward the nearly submerged Greene Island, which was 14 acres before the 1938 Hurricane. Now, it’s almost gone. The chilly wind was about 15 mph, and the bay was shimmering gold as cat's paws swept across its surface. I could see Mt. Hope Bridge, connecting Bristol and Portsmouth, about 10 miles to the southeast. There seemed to be no marine traffic today as fluffy clouds drifted toward Bristol and Middletown. There's a 270-degree view from the High Banks at Gaspee Point. I gazed at the shades of ultramarine and indigo that uncoiled toward the shipping channel.
*A concave beach perhaps a mile long from north to south on the west side of Narragansett Bay; it’s famous for the burning of the burning of the HMS Gaspee, in 1772. For readers not familiar with Narragansett Bay, the point is bounded on the north by Passeonkquis Cove and on the south by Occupessatuxet Cove, and it’s reached via Namquid Drive in Warwick.
On Gaspee Point
