Kayaking with the Ospreys

After almost 15 months of living on the road in our motor home, we've decided to hang up the keys and stop traveling. It's no fun any more hiking and biking and seeing new things every day.

April Fools! After 15 months, we are still loving this life style!

Now that we have hiked and biked, to finish up our exercise trifecta we put the kayak out on the lake that we can see from our camping site here at Cotton Hill. Denisa has been spying on the osprey nest closest to our site since we arrived.

She had watched as they dove into the water to snatch up aquatic plants. 

The birds would carry them in their claws back to the nest, and then work to mold it into the interior of the nest.

So we pumped up our inflatable Sea Eagle, and set out on the Walter F. George Reservoir with its 640 miles of shore line. The trees around the lake have leafed out, and turned that beautiful color of early spring green.

We found that the osprey nest we had been spying on was just one of ten different nests we would paddle by this day. We found nesting pairs that were readying their nest for their families this spring.

In order to keep the blog PG-rated, we can just say that spring was definitely in the air.

It was fun to paddle close to nests to see how they were constructed. Some included spanish moss, scraps of ribbon, old clothing, live branches . . . anything that would weld together these massive nests over the water.

Ospreys are also called "fish eagles", and we were hoping to watch their fishing skills. But we only saw the bird on the left, flying away with the fish already in his claws.

We saw other birds on our kayak trip, like this one guarding the "slow boat zone" sign . . .

but the ospreys and their giant nests were our favorites. Their preference seems to be flat-topped cypress trees in the middle of the lake. We could barely see the head of the Mother Osprey that already seemed to be sitting on eggs at this nest.

We only paddled 5 miles this afternoon, but really enjoyed the little touch of nature that we could share in that distance.

We are really enjoying our spot at Cotton Hill, with the deluxe sites found at most Corp of Engineer parks. But we had rain the last two days we were camping. 

The good news is that the rain helped to wash the pollen off our motor home. We also used the time inside to finish our income taxes, and do some spring cleaning. Even on perpetual vacation, into every life a little rain (and a lot of taxes and dust) must fall.