Osprey, River Road

I've heard rumors about the return of the Osprey all week, but this gray and raw afternoon, I finally spotted the first fish hawk of the year in a nest by a power line just off River Road in Westerly. The birds weren't there last week, but when I drove by slowly at about four, I noticed one sitting in the nest and scanning the horizon. I parked, raced up the hill to an observation point atop a bluff, and then heard the Osprey's mate making its noisy homecoming. It wasn't coming without a gift. Often, this involves presenting a freshly caught fish, or something else delectable, such as a snake or even, once, a muskrat, but today, the raptor was coming back with a small branch—just the thing to freshen up the place which, after a winter of disuse, could use some TLC.