We're Gonna Need a Bigger Box

 A friend of mine, who lives in the neighborhood in Lower Marlboro where the osprey nest box is located, sent me two photos she had just taken.  With her kind permission, I publish them here. The first shows Momma and three babies.  The babies have already attained substantial size.

In this second photo, you can see all three chicks and the parents.  Try to imagine the chicks when they are the size of the parents and you can see why I have said the nest box is too small.  As the chicks get larger they will begin to test their wings and they need a little room to do that.  They will be falling over one another at that point - although the parents won't always be in the box.  Even now, the male stays in the nearby trees and brings in groceries and drops them off, then leaves.  In the time I was there yesterday, he was bringing fish to the family at the rate of about one an hour.

(With apologies to Roy Scheider who uttered the phrase, "We're gonna need a bigger boat," in the movie Jaws after seeing the size of the shark.)