The summer of unusual bird sightings continues for me. On Saturday I stopped to fish a ledge and a turkey flew out of the trees on the bank (I guess frightened by our arrival in the boat) I am sure that she thought it would be a short flight followed by a quick touch down. Much to the turkeys surprise she had flown out over the river where it was about a mile wide. On the initial glide down it nearly went into the water but realized that landing was not a good idea (do you suppose that they can swim?) a great flapping of wings got some altitude for another glide down.
Our weather has been pretty consistent for most of this week. An easterly wind with no rain and because the wind is off of the water chilly temperatures. The striper fishing continues to be slow because of the cold water that arrives on each incoming tide. The water temperature fell seven degrees between the harbor and my first stop to fish this morning. Hopefully the sun this afternoon with the tide out will warm the bottom and in turn the water some. Of course it will not warm up in only one day and what we really need is a day or two with the wind in some other direction than the east.
Yesterday while waiting at the Thomaston public landing for my afternoon striper fishing party I saw something that I had only seen once before. An osprey dove and successfully caught a herring. While he was flying off with his prize an eagle appeared and began to harass the osprey. For several minutes it was quite a display of aerial ability with the more maneuverable osprey seeming to be able to avoid but not escape the eagle. After repeated dives from the eagle and an equal number of successful rolls twists and dives. The osprey gave up and let go of the fish.
