Visitor

On Saturday I was looking out towards the pond when an osprey appeared floating in the sky. It spent quite a while swooping, sailing, hovering, and stooping (how does something that big just hang in the air like that?), before finally splashing down and heading off with it's booty: an 8" fish of undetermined species. It perched on a tree on the hillside and ate its feast, then set off down the hollow towards the north. There was an osprey over the pond at this same time last year, but there weren't yet any fish big enough to catch its attention back then. I wonder if it's the same individual, and if so I hope it will now make our pond a regular meal stop on its annual passage. A couple of fish is a very small price to pay for such a noble visitor.