Drama in the Sky

This afternoon, I hauled my carcass to Tibbett's Brook Park for what passes for fresh air in the megalopolis and some sunshine (living at night isn't helping my complexion). In the course of rambling around the pond, I saw (gasp!) an osprey flying overhead:

I noticed something trailing from the bird's legs, which it was attempting to dislodge with a complicated set of aerial maneuvers. Thankfully, the bird was able to dislodge the thing, which turned out to be (yeah, you probably guessed it) a plastic bag:

The damn thing was too far from the shore to fish out of the pond. Thankfully, NYC, our big neighbor to the south, seems to be moving quickly toward forcing stores to charge ten cents per plastic bag, to reduce this waste that will outlive our nation (the Atlantic has its own floating garbage gyre now).

On a happy note, there is at least one osprey in Tibbett's Brook Park. At the mothership, the subject of DDT came up- DDT use led to severe declines in osprey populations. Seeing an osprey today was a happy coincidence.

Sadly, I missed the one shot which would have been best for this post. After its aerobatics to dislodge the plastic bag, the bird took a plunge into the water and emerged carrying what appeared to be a "liberated" goldfish (judging by the color) in its talons. Hopefully, the osprey will establish residency in the park... if that happens, I'll have to apologize to the wood ducks for not considering them my Tibbett's favorites anymore.