Osprey Island

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Praise

OSPREY ISLAND, SUMMER 1988

Prologue - THE ONES THEY CAME BACK FOR

One - THE LODGE AT OSPREY ISLAND

Two - WHERE THE OSPREY MAKES ITS NEST

Three - THE RAPTOR IS A BIRD OF PREY

Four - TO WHAT DIRECTION WILL YOUR CHICKS TAKE WING?

Five - HOW BLACK THE NIGHT THAT BLINDS OUR HUMAN HEARTS

Six - AS FODDER BLAZES STORED ABOVE THE BYRE

Seven - IN THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS WILL I MAKE MY REFUGE

Eight - THE MECHANICS OF FLIGHT

Nine - AN OSPREY BUILDS ITS NEST OF STICKS AND ALL THE RUBBISH IT CAN COLLECT

Ten - HOW THE OSPREY TENDS ITS NESTLINGS

Eleven - THE BLESSINGS OF HYPOTHERMIA

Twelve - ON THE INTERACTION OF SPECIES

Thirteen - THE NATURE OF THE STRUCTURE OF A LIE

Fourteen - THE BROODINESS OF HENS A Brief Lesson in Avian Reproduction

Fifteen - IF THE PRICE WERE TREACHERY

Sixteen - A LONG TIME HELPLESS IN THE NEST

Seventeen - AS THEY FLEE YOU’D THINK THEY FLOAT ON WINGS

Eighteen - WWCD?

Nineteen - THE SHORE RECEDES, AND I TOO ON THE SHORE

Twenty - GRIEF-SPURRED, SWIFT-SWOOPING

Twenty-one - THAT FLESH OF HIS OWN FLESH

Twenty-two - NIGHT IS THE SUREST NURSE OF TROUBLED SOULS

Epilogue - AN EYRIE OF OSPREY

Acknowledgments

About the Author

ALSO BY THISBE NISSEN

Copyright Page

FOR MY MOM AND DAD,

AND FOR S.I.,

WITH GREAT AFFECTION AND RESPECT

It may be thought that I have not dwelt sufficiently on the generally assumed evil tendencies of certain birds. I have tried to be perfectly just, but there had been so much exaggeration and sensationalism in writing of birds, that I have been careful to investigate all accusations.

—OLIVE THORNE MILLER, The Second Book of Birds

Acclaim for This be Nissen’s Osprey Island

“Much like the great Joyce Carol Oates, Thisbe Nissen creates an exclusive world peopled with both the young and the old. . . . Nissen’s writing is calm and poetic.”

—Baltimore City Paper

“Well-crafted . . . secrets abound in a place where family bonds often go beyond blood relations.”

—Chicago Tribune