There are lots of signs of spring . . . Robins, Groundhogs, crocuses . . . but in Mid-Coast Maine, we look for these signs too, but Spring really arrives when the Ospreys return!!!!
While there are numerous nests in the area . . . there are two that really stand out:
Shaws:
For as long as I can remember, a pair of Ospreys have nested on a pole in the middle of the highway near the Shaws’ Grocery Store in Bath. With this very visible location, the birds are known throughout mid-coast Maine as the Shaw’s Ospreys.
In 1978, the Taste of Maine, a seafood restaurant opened in Woolwich, Maine and quickly because a landmark and tourist destination. In recent years an enormous pole and nest platform stands adjacent to Taste of Maine’s parking lot, complete with an “osprey cam” in the restaurant lobby.Just about the same time that the Red Sox start playing baseball for real (first week in April), the Mid-Coast Ospreys return, setting off a pulse of excitement in the area:
- “Did you hear, the Ospreys are back?”
- “I saw them sitting on the nest as I was coming home from work”
- “I saw one of them flying over the parking lot”
This year the Taste of Maine Ospreys arrived first but Ingrid just texted me (as I write this) and told me they’ve arrived at Shaws.
Spring has arrived.
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