My husband and I eagerly watch the nature around us. We have an abundance of flora and fauna around our home and our lives are full of wildflowers and animals. To name all the animals around our home would take too much space, so I will say that there are very few native species that we have not seen or heard here.
Babies! and they’re hungry. 
Birds especially intrigue me. Like my Granny Ollie, I’ve always kept bird feeders and a bird bath in the back yard to lure in migrants and to feed the resident birds who entertain us. The visitors vary from year to year and I’m usually rewarded with a new-to-me bird during migrations. I have to admit that wildlife conservation and living near the lake have expanded my sightings immensely. When I was a child we never saw wild turkeys, tree swallows, bluebirds, Canada geese or Sandhill cranes. There were no cormorants here, no eagles, and few osprey and herons. Now, we have an abundance of them. We even have cattle egrets in the rural areas. I fell in love with these wonderful birds in Granbury, Texas, as they followed the cattle to feed on insects. Beautiful birds!
A couple of years ago we spent several months observing two different osprey nests between our home and town. Each time we drove by we would note the progress of construction, hatching, growing chicks and, eventually, fledging. If one of us drove to town and back we would give each other an update when we returned home. If we forgot to update we would be questioned, “What are the ospreys up to today?”
The nests were built just days apart and the eggs hatched along the same timeline. One nest was on our road not far from the lake and the other nest was on a street light by the lake in town. The town nest was built on top of an owl decoy that was supposed to deter osprey nesting. It helped hold the nest together. I like to think that owl became a toy companion for the hatchlings.
We enjoyed watching the amazing growth of the chicks and the dedication of the parents. Even through windstorms and torrential rain both nests flourished.
In late Spring the nestlings were as big as the parents and the time came to spread their wings and fly. The fledglings from the nest nearest our home were eager to fly and soon their nest was abandoned. The town nest, however, was not.
It’s amazing how the animal world echoes our human lives sometimes. One of the city birds refused to leave the nest. It was like a spoiled teenager who wouldn’t leave his parents’ basement so I dubbed it Entitled Brat (EB). It sat in that nest demanding to be fed for weeks. The parents fed it for quite a while, but they finally left it to fend for itself. It remained. I guess it ventured out and ate what it fished from the lake, but I never saw it fly. Every time I drove by, EB’s silhouette was still visible in the nest.
I guess city officials finally got fed up. One day shortly before the annual Independence Day festivities, I drove by and saw a city bucket truck parked just under the street light that held the osprey’s home. Several workers stood around the truck while one city worker was high in the bucket, tearing away the sticks that held the nest together and uncovering the owl decoy that was supposed to deter nest-building birds. That lingering osprey was fussing and trying to attack the poor fellow. I have to say that EB was flying really well. The nest came down anyway, a stick or two at a time.
For a few days, the now-evicted EB sat on the light pole looking like a sulking vulture. After that, though, I guess it moved to more comfortable quarters. I haven’t seen it there again.
The next year’s brood was more typical. The fledglings willingly left the nest behind for better opportunities elsewhere. I still wonder about Entitled Brat, what happened with the silly bird. Maybe, like many human children, when forced to face reality EB prospered. I hope so.
