Are you old enough to remember when there were a lot fewer Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)? By the 1960s, numbers were grim because of a history of assassination, egg-collecting, and finally DDT, which weakened their eggs so much the birds were actually crushing their own young during incubation. 
In 1969, there were an estimated 150 breeding pairs found between New York and Boston; there had been 1000 in 1940. But recovery has been so successful they are now considered of Least Concern on the world-scale. They also nest right here in Brooklyn.
Last week, we went down to Virginia’s Middle Peninsula and saw oodles of them. Yes, oodles, not a particularly scientific term, but suggestive of their omnipresence. All these pictures are from that trip. 
For instance, crossing the Potomac Bridge, I counted seven over the river and one on a nest on the bridge. [Note to road-tripers, I was designated bird-spotter, not the driver.] At New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve, we saw nine, perched on trees, old piers, what looked like a hunter’s blind, and on nests.
This nest next to the Gwynn’s Island bridge shows their adaptability to the human environment.
One was also perched atop the very tall mast of a yacht in Deltaville, the “sailing capital of the Chesapeake.” We also saw one chasing a Bald Eagle. Osprey’s are big, larger than Red-tailed Hawks, for instance, but still smaller than eagles.
And yesterday, back home in Brooklyn, we saw one fly over Grand Army Plaza with a fish in its talons. (Of course, I checked on the nest I can see from my window as soon as I got back: still sitting.)
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That time I assisted the Maria Mitchell crew in banding baby Osprey on Nantucket:
Part I
Part II
More marvelous lichens from Nantucket.
And amidst them, a tiny mushroom. 
Lichens are extremely sensitive to air pollution, so we don’t have all that many here in the city. We’re missing out on an amazing little universe as a result, one we’ve gotten used to not seeing. This is a perfect example of the way environmental destruction isn’t noticed: as species decline and disappear, we become used to what we see now in the present, forgetting what once was. Everything seems normal now, but isn’t, not by a log shot. 
Last week, however, I was thirty miles off the coast of Cape Cod, on Nantucket, where the frisky air is some of the cleanest on the East Coast. As a consequence, the place is a lichen wonderland. A similar habitat to Long Island, Nantucket thus serves as a window into our own past here. 
Lichens are composite, symbiotic organisms, made up of fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria. They come in some very interesting forms. 
Lichens can grow on almost any surface. An ocean-nestled place like Nantucket means they’re thick on wood, both alive and dead (fences, houses), but higher elevations and drier places will see them on rock. The base of this hoary elm has a particular rich landscape of lichen.
Backyard and Beyond 