Drivers along the Lakes Way just south of Forster have been doing doubletakes as they pass this aerial edifice.
After watching my Willy Wagtails’ teeny effort, this massive pile of branches seemed hardly birdlike.
I only had time to zoom in on the remaining parent. I’d been thinking a White-breasted (or White-bellied) Sea Eagle, but this has to be an Osprey. They are raptors like Eagles, Kites, Harriers and Goshawks, but are a class of their own.
No doubt the absent parent was off patrolling the nearby waterways. Ospreys are highly specialised fish hunters, having spines on the soles of their feet to help hold a slippery fish, as well as needle-sharp talons.
I haven’t seen it but they are also spectacular fishers, plunging into water feet first to seize a fish, sometimes going right under.
One of my bird books (‘Australia — Land of Birds’,Trounson) reckons their eggs are considered amongst the most beautiful of all — ‘cream, boldly blotched and dotted with rich brown and chocolate’ — and much prized by collectors in the past.
So it is not surprising that Ospreys choose to build beyond collector or little boy climbing height — with the extra security of a high-voltage hit to the daring.