Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/979583
97 record for this pair. Recently, someone asked me to write a poem to accompany a photo of an osprey. How could I not also include my best friend? Osprey High in sky an Osprey hovers quick dives for fish, hits the water feet first with talons spread. Its aim true, it emerges, fish firm in claws. With two great beats of its broad wings, Osprey aloft. Beads of bay water fly off fish and wink in the sun. Less than two minutes show's over, Osprey off to its stick nest where mom keeps a sharp yellow eye on her chicks— which my friend spent two hours every day on the cam waiting for them to hatch. As though they were her own. Last year, I walked in to find my friend watching her iPad intently. "Osprey cam?" "No. Giraffe. Her name is April and her baby is due any day." u To view the Pete McLain Osprey Cam visit the Friends of Island Beach State Park website at www.friendsofibsp.org. To view the Giraffe Cam, visit: www.aprilthegiraffe.com. For more information about Pete McLain, read the new book "Island Beach - A Sonnet in the Sands" by Gordon Hesse, pages 199 - 203. Information about the book can be found on page 91 of this magazine. Frank Finale is the author of the new coffee table book "To The Shore Once More, Volume III" as well as "To The Shore Once More, Volumes I & II" and "A Gull's Story, Parts 1, 2, and 3." He is also coeditor of the anthologies "Under A Gull's Wing" and "The Poets of New Jersey." Mr. Finale will be giving read- ings, meeting readers, and signing books at numer- ous events this season. Please refer to pages 88 - 96 as well as www.jerseyshorebooks.com for more infor- mation about his books and appearances. were cold and bare. "Hi. Whatcha looking at?" "Oh, I'm waiting for the eggs to hatch." "What eggs?" "Osprey eggs." "Where?" "Island Beach State Park. It's an Osprey Cam the Friends of Island Beach State Park put up. It's called the Pete McLain Osprey Cam." "Who's he?" "He's a famous environmentalist." "Where are the eggs?" "She's sitting on them, incubating them, keeping them warm." "Looks pretty breezy up there." "She's waiting for her mate to bring back a fish." "By the way, what are we eating tonight?" "I'll throw some burgers on the grill." Over the next month, my friend's mind seemed preoccupied with how the ospreys were doing and when the eggs were going to hatch. She and other friends, who were also watching the nest, had a contest guessing the date. Whenever she had time, I could find her staring at her iPad and worrying about the mother. "I think her claw is caught in the fishnet part of the nest." Or "Wow, it's really windy and rainy there today. Look at the poor thing's feathers blowing all over. I hope she doesn't get blown off her eggs." Or "When's that mate going to bring her some- thing to eat?" Thus, I got to know Bay (named for Lady of the Barnegat Bay) and Bandit (a banded osprey "who stole Bay's heart and nest"). I also learned about Pete McLain and all the work he'd done to bring the osprey back and the Friends of Island Beach State Park who put up the cam. As for my osprey on the telephone pole beside the road to my favorite waterfront restaurant, that next summer it had moved to one of the man-made nests located much further from the road, a safer place. Normally, osprey lay only two or three eggs each year. Despite my friend's worry, all four of Bandit and Bay's eggs hatched that year—a HOME PORT, FROM OSPREY TO GIRAFFE Continued from page 98