Look up in the sky, it’s the hawk that fishes! One can almost hear the opening bars of Superman, the television series, as we gaze up into the sky and watch our local osprey as they glide above, searching for food.

            The handle “the hawk that fishes” is extremely apropos according to osprey expert Dr. Alan Poole. He has been an associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and editor of Birds of North America for over two decades. Poole is also an author of two books (one for children) with osprey as the theme. Poole gave an in-depth presentation at the Marion Natural History Museum on August 16.

            Poole is widely known for his conservation work on behalf of these majestic birds for the last 35 years. They are survivors of the first order, Poole said, going from the brink of population collapse to a return with global expansion. Although he stated that there has been a 30% decline in population overall from the 1950s, today they are doing well globally.

            Poole asked the audience to consider the osprey a master fisherman, with long hook-like talons and eyesight designed to see fish just below the water’s surface. It is totally dependent on fish as a food source and water supply, he noted. Osprey can consume both salt and freshwater fish; thus, their nesting sites can be found in pond and lake areas as well as saltwater marshes.

            And what about those nests. Poole said that many hundreds of individual sticks comprise nests that are improved and repaired season after season, primarily by the males. Nests can be found atop electric utility poles or nestled on maritime channel markers.

            People have helped osprey with their homesteading activities, he said, by building platforms above hunting areas. Locally, these nests can be found in marshlands or along cranberry bogs. Wherever water supports fish, colonies of osprey may be found. Wiley estimated that there are now 100 nests along the Westport River.

            On the issue of survival, this bird gets top ratings. When DDT was introduced after World War II as an agent to control insect predation, birds of all types would be horrendously impacted. Beyond killing off adult birds, DDT damaged shells, rendering them unviable. Bird numbers fell dramatically.

            Poole reminded us that author Rachel Carson’s pivotal book “Silent Spring” sounded the alarm bell regarding the use of pesticides, and slowly DDT spraying was stopped. Along with our national icon, the bald eagle and many others, osprey have been able to reestablish their numbers in the wild.

            The osprey in this area make “an epic” migration each year, traveling from the northeast U.S. to east central South America. They can clock in as many as 160,000 miles in a lifetime, it is estimated. They arrive here in the spring for mating and nesting and depart in September for their winter-season feeding areas with mated pairs returning to the same nest year after year.

            Poole said that mated pairs do not travel together on the great migrations, nor do they meet up during the winter. “They take separate vacations.” European osprey migrate to western Africa, even crossing the Sahara Desert. Migration routes vary, but the average trip is approximately three weeks.

            Family units are generally two to three eggs and the mated pair. Mother osprey do not leave the nest to feed while the young are maturing. This results in females sustaining loss of body fat, strength and stamina, Poole explained. But evolution helps these ladies out by providing a supportive male partner.

            The females leave the nest before the young take flight, thusly the male takes over hunting and feeding chores. The females in the meantime are plumping up on fish in preparation for that epic migration south without having to share with very hungry young ones.

            But, make no mistake, ospreys have had a rocky recovery since the 1950s. It was considered a nuisance bird in Great Britain, where recreational sportfishing was and is a thriving tourist industry. The osprey were hunted down and eradicated in the 1880s. It wasn’t until Scotland in the 1950s began reintroducing osprey on large private estates that numbers began to climb.

            So thrilled were people at that time that at one nesting site, as many as 2,000,000 visitors came to see one nest. It’s that old story, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Osprey have been around for millions of years. Here’s hoping osprey and the ecosystem that supports them continues to thrive for millions more.

            To learn more about Poole’s work and the ospreys’ amazing recovery, visit academy.allaboutbirds.org/person/alan-poole or massaudubon.org/places-to-explore/wildlife-sanctuaries/allens-pond/projects/south-coast-osprey-project.

By Marilou Newell

            The childlike wonder on the faces of old men was unmistakable and, at the same time, a serious outlet of stress management in the form of a fun science experiment.

            Those men, mostly senior citizens, gathered with families and friends on Saturday on Decas Cranberry property at the edge of Mary’s Pond in Rochester to launch model aircraft during the John Nicolaci Memorial Float Fly held by the Bristol County Radio Control Club.

            Their colorful array of radio-controlled seaplanes, flying boats and sport models varied in size, but against a brilliant blue sky geometric perspective was lost, and the planes took on an appearance rivaling a full-scale demonstration.

            One pilot literally hurled his craft into the air, but the rest planted them at the edge of the water, and into a headwind they accelerated to a graceful departure. With their hand-held controls, the pilots alternated between conventional flight patterns and more daring maneuvers, including inverted aircraft, spinning or a steep climb to zero gravity.

            Since age 15, Gary Carreiro has been involved with the Bristol County Radio Control Club, which at age 49, he serves as co-president. Carreiro estimates 40 club members, approximately 10 of which are active flyers. The club is part of a nationwide society of model-airplane pilots numbering 58,000.

            “Obviously, there are rogue flyers,” said Carreiro.

            Carlos Costa, the organization’s vice president, was on hand as well as Safety Officer Gerry Dupont.

            Their event was not only a fun outing but honored the memory of John Nicolaci, an original member of the club whose Navy career involved working on the wing assembly of the Martin PBM Mariner patrol bomber flying boat during World War II. He passed away in 2009 but not before paving the way for the activities enjoyed by the club today.

            According to Carreiro, Nicolaci once flew his own model plane from Martha’s Vineyard to New Bedford. His wife Ruth (Knowles) Nicolaci passed away on July 2, so Saturday’s event was extra special to the local flyers.

            Though not a competition, the Float Fly was sanctioned by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), which also functions as an insurance carrier for the club.

            It takes several hundred dollars to start off in model-airplane flying. Models can be purchased for as little as $300 but go well upward in cost, especially as their owners customize them or adapt existing models to emulate historic aircraft.

            Model flying lessons are available by appointment, said Carreiro. For more information, email the Bristol County Radio Control Club at info@bristolcountyrc.org.

By Mick Colageo

            Recently, the Marion Art Center staged a production of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.” Just thinking about that play brings back many memories. Mostly bad. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

            “Love Letters” is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated, two-person play about Andrew and Melissa, who have exchanged letters for over 50 years. While they have lived separate lives with other mates, their love for each other is the unsaid thread that binds them until it is too late to express it aloud.

            The missus and I, along with some others, had formed a community theater, and the play was one of our first productions. We had no budget, so it was a perfect choice to begin our adventure in the theater. It is known as a “staged reading” … no sets, no costumes and the actors, seated at a table, read from the script.

            We performed it under less-than-ideal conditions. The “theater” was the meeting hall of the local VFW situated above the post’s bar. The ambient noise was not exactly conducive to a tender, wistful love story.

            For reasons I still can’t fathom, the director cast me as the privileged New England WASP Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Melissa Gardner was played by an appropriately WASPish woman who had recently moved to our town who fancied herself the second coming of Sarah Bernhardt and saw me as somewhere between Peewee Herman – May he rest in peace – and Sylvester Stallone. Despite the title of the play, there was no love lost between us two thespians.

            Thanks to the brilliant work of the director, we pulled off the illusion of an unfulfilled, loving relationship perfectly. Well, perfectly may be too strong a description, but that’s why it’s called acting. Did I mention the director was my wife?

            Had I been born much earlier, my foray into “treading the boards” might have happened right here in Mattapoisett. Our town was once a hotbed of legitimate theater.

            I can recall as a boy attending plays in the upper town hall where there once was an auditorium. Musicals, concerts, minstrel shows, graduations and town meetings … which were often a source of entertainment in their own right … were all held there. Alas, we no longer have a venue suited to any theatricals. In the late 1800s, Mattapoisett did have a theater. It was located on Water Street in a former boathouse on the wharf at the foot of Mechanic Street.

            E.V. Bird, a summer resident, operated The Ways, an 80-seat venue named for the ways boats were hauled out of the water. The building had a large stage and housed dressing rooms and a place for painting sets that Mr. Bird built himself. In addition, he had a storehouse for props, furniture, scenery, and all things a theater needed for a performance.

            According to “Old Mattapoisett Tales,” a 1970 publication of the Woman’s Club, townsfolk enjoyed the performances, particularly at Thursday dress rehearsals, which were free. Tickets were required for weekend audiences who came from miles around. “Local talent” played the women’s roles, while men actors came from acting societies in Boston and New York.

            After its halcyon days as a theater, the building was moved across the street where it was converted into a residence and moved to the lot that once held the Mattapoisett House Hotel. It was moved again closer to the street and became the former Mattapoisett Inn Bread and Breakfast.

            Incidentally, one of the first productions at The Ways was “Old Love Letters.” How about that! I’ll bet my Sarah Bernhardt-wannabe costar would have loved to perform in that play, perhaps opposite Sylvester Stallone.

            Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.