Just Excellent Part II

There is always room in the day for surprises. If you do not leave room for them on your day of duties, you may trip over them and they will become misfortunes instead of surprises. 

Tabor sat on her leaf blown deck with all the outdoor furniture returned to its places once again for reviewing the warmer weather. She was reading The Penguin anthology of 20th Century American Poetry ( she is retired and actually tackles stuff like this in her life) while the chickadees scolded her for sitting too close to the hanging suet feeder. She had skipped over Wallace Stevens whom she either disliked or did not understand, and was turning the page when the high penetrating chirp of an osprey called from over the river. 

Tabor looked up.  There he was swooping and cascading in the warm spring air. It took only a few minutes before a second osprey joined and they flew together putting out some call which only they understood. They were not coasting.  They were flapping and racing energetically.  They eventually landed on a tree at the edge of the river. First the one and then the second paused for a brief respite. Soon they were off again flying up and down the river. Then a THIRD joined them, perhaps a juvenile from last year. 

They flew high over the river surveying everything.  Tabor returned to her reading. In an hour the sun broke through the soft clouds and all three flew in, low and straight, just like bombers on the wing down the line of the river. The first one doubled back and landed on the new osprey platform, but only for three or four seconds before being pushed off by the second one that landed in the exact same spot. Then in three or four seconds more the last one flew in and landed on the exact spot where the other two had sat so briefly, but this one stayed for several minutes looking around and grooming its feathers.  Then it left down the river.

Patience  I keep thinking.