Migration.

We don’t migrate but we know many who do.  Friends seek cooler climes in summer and warmer ones in winter.  Just like birds.  The difference is that our migrations are optional. The birds’ migrations?   Their very lives depend on it.

Our migrators can expect to find their other homes intact when they arrive.  Perhaps their fridges have been stocked and the grass mowed.  It is, hopefully, an easy transition.

That’s not always the case for our fine feathered friends, including the beautiful and statuesque Osprey.  There are several Osprey couples who, happily and annually, make Hilton Head their summer home. We know where their nests are (they’re hard to miss) and we watch for their safe return in early summer.  We know when they’ve had babies (fledglings) and we affectionately give them names.

But, where growth and development reign, as it does here, those nests are no match for a chain saw.

Thus, down went Ozzie and Harriet’s four-year old nest last week.  Just in time for their return with their fledgling in tow.  The tree supporting the nest was determined to be in the way of yet another new development.

The Osprey will build another nest.  It’s what they do.  But for a bit, we mourn their loss and the loss of all the other trees that went down with theirs.