On Sat. morning at 6am I went down Schoolhouse road to the osprey nest to get pictures of the mother osprey and her two chicks.
The nest had the mom sitting as usual but I saw no chicks.
I slowly walked toward the nest and at about forty feet or so, the mother jumped out of the nest and headed right for me at twenty feet altitude. Another osprey (dad?) joined her shortly afterwards and they began circling strafing runs at me. On every pass, I contemplated what I would do if they dove at me (swing the camera and lens like a club came to mind).
The mother osprey on one of her practice attack passes. That is the half-moon behind her.
Soon a third adult osprey (the osprey national guard?) joined the contest. Three birds of prey flying combat air patrol and still no chicks were visible.
Then the mother osprey returned carrying a big branch like a torpedo. She swung around behind the nest and headed for it. At first I thought I had a chance to get a great picture of her landing on the nest but I also immediately wondered why her fully constructed nest needed another big stick.
Then she proceeded over the nest and straight for me with the stick. Uh-oh. Is she going to drop it on me or whack me with it?
She did this several more times before landing the stick on the nest. I waited another twenty minutes or so waiting for the chicks to appear but they never did while I had my camera ready. Shortly after retreating from the nest, the chicks popped up as I headed home.
First day of the weekend visit to NH was spent (partly) hiking up Temple Mountain, which is really a series of three or four peaks on a rise stretching southward from near Peterborough. In the old days it was a ski mountain, both downhill and cross-country.