In 2017 after years of struggling to hear, I finally got hearing aids. Some of what I now hear, I would rather not. I’m really pretty uninterested in other peoples’ phone conversations in restaurants!

But, oh, the calls of birds! Sometimes I stand in my driveway and just listen for awhile. I’m working on learning to identify birds by their call, but it is slow going.

I didn’t even look for birds or try to photograph them for many years because hearing them is a huge help in locating them, and I couldn’t. Now my frustration is being able to hear them but, especially in the summer when leaves are on the trees, not being able to see them.

Ospreys don’t spend much time in trees. They nest high at the top of snags or on human made platforms over a marsh or beach–near water from which they expertly extract fish with impressive diving skills and talons.

This osprey returned to the nest high over the Dauphin Island salt marsh to dry and groom her feathers. Was she calling to her mate still out over the marsh somewhere? Reassuring her chick? I don’t know. But to hear the voice of another creature is to experience connection. Sing your canticle, sister osprey!

BTW, don’t you wish you could have seen the face of the fisherman watching his or her dip net soar away to become part of an osprey nest?