8 June 2026
Hello Everyone,
UPDATE: Clark has returned to the nest. He must have had great difficulty fishing. He came in with a nice one for his beloved Iris who had to be absolutely at her wits end and starving. Time 1106.
I am hardly controlling my tears of joy. After the past week, it just felt like something terrible was going to happen. I could hardly bring myself to hope. But here is the miracle that I was waiting for! Clark is home. Iris is fed. Now, to get those rivers to calm down so Clark can feed their babies. We are on pip watch.
My inbox and FB Messenger are full of comments about how we – humans – have failed our planet and our wildlife. Right now, that focus is more on the disaster that has occurred in and around the Chesapeake Bay. That ecosystem has been destroyed by one company, Omega Protein out of Reedsville, Virginia. It isn’t just ospreys that are going extinct – yes, I am using that word – but also Striped Bass, terrapins and anything in the food chain that depended on Menhaden. ‘The Bay’ is dying. Why isn’t someone doing something? That is the question you are asking.
Those ships are out -.
Last week I received a little book from a friend in the post, Song of the Seasons. a Meditation on Cycles, Story, and Humility by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, a Sufi writer and spiritual ecologist. Vaughan-Lee maintains that the problem is that humans do not believe that our planet is a living entity and that they have dominion over it. “The story of forgetfulness that has distanced us, that has put us to sleep…is about the denial of the spiritual nature of this living, breathing Earth.” (32) “Our senses can again become attuned to the spirit that flows through all things, so that when we hear the birds at dusk, we let their song penetrate our being. Why would we not want that? The song that we hear, in this moment, is of this place, and of this season. And this song wants to be heard….it wants to be heard not just with the outer senses, but with the…ear of the heart, so that that birdson becomes part of us and links us to this moment, to this cycle, to this place. Vaughan-Lee is asking us to be present in this moment – to literally, as Ram Dass asked us to ‘Be Here Now’. At the same time is the underlying thread that every living thing including our Earth is sacred, a belief held by many cultures and religions. So special is the soul that my Jain friends in Udaipur will not even step on an ant or kill a fly. One of my best friends taught me that all things have souls and I will always be grateful to Ikuhiko for teaching me about Shinto.
I feel that the Earth has become nothing more than a commodity – AI centres using up all the water, dredging ocean floors and ruining marine life, and then there is the focus of my anger at the moment, the commercial overfishing of Menhaden in the NE US and in the Gulf region of the US by Omega Protein. It is not just this company – don’t kid yourself. But all is not despair, although I might feel that way today. There are good people doing amazing things around the world, including fighting against the establishment of AI Centres, lobbying for no drilling on lands where wildlife thrive, purchasing electric vehicles and beginning to use alternative energy, growing gardens and teaching others; the list is long. We cannot give up because if we do, we give all the beauty that we love over to what I want to simply call the dark side – those that would destroy all our planet and its wildlife deliberately for their own gain.
I hope this is for real.
As I write this, the rivers in Oregon and Colorado are drying up due to drought and the fish are dying.
I really hope to get to some good news by the end of this blog. And it happened, it is at the top.
Clark has not returned to the nest he shares with Iris at Hellgate Canyon in Missoula. The rivers were raging, and fishing was difficult. He was last seen on the 6th, and that was, as far as I know, the last time Iris ate. Their eggs are ready to hatch. Clark is also known for being overprotective of Iris and their nest, and he lost at least five tail feathers in what is assumed to have been an altercation with a Bald Eagle. Clark was very attentive, and my concern is that he has met with a battle he could not win. I want to be wrong.
At Lake Murray, the GHO took the last two of the three osplets last night.
I wonder what we would find if we put up a big map and put a red pin on places where osprey parents fledged their full clutch. Which ones can you think of? Venice Beach. Achieva (that is a huge surprise). Any others? We will do this again at the end of the season.
Big and Little continue to be well cared for by Mum Jill. Such stability at that nest. Big and Little came together to the nest about the same time that Jill goes fishing every day. She is an amazing mother. I wonder how the female is doing in Minnesota who is raising three osplets alone – from incubation to now. This could be Iris if the Crows wouldn’t take the babies and if Iris would go fishing for them.
Fishing at Loch of the Lowes: https://youtu.be/c9UP6e5tChQ?
Telyn appears to be fine, although some are wondering if she swallowed a braided line and a different hook, one used by poachers. I am just glad she is doing well as are her three chicks.
Latest updates on situation from Dyfi Osprey Project:
https://www.dyfiospreyproject.com/blog/emyr-mwt/telyn-swallows-fishing-hook-and-line
I am going to stop because I am so delighted that Clark is home I don’t want to ruin the day by finding out something else has happened on another nest. Yes, I am going to stick my head in the proverbial sand for a bit.
Take care everyone. Delight in this miracle and pray for the river to calm so Clark can feed their babies quickly.
Thank you to everyone mentioned in this post and the owners of the streaming cams, authors of newsletters and FB page information. Always grateful.