To The Editor:
Loved your “Slow it down” editorial of April 2, 2020. Here is what slows us down:
We have sunsets! And sunrises! A total treat. In our Mad River Valley mountain condo with two mountain ranges, we rarely saw much in the way of sunrises and never sunsets unless we hiked up to Sunset Ledge. The rises and sets here (in Chappaquiddick) are quite spectacular most days and worthy of long appreciation.
Here's what slows us down: Our returned osprey pair are fixing up their nest in preparation. The same pair (for years) got back last week, male first, waiting patiently, and then the female. The osprey swoop down on our side “yard” (still dirt and tree trimmings from construction) and find a good stick and then fly a lap around the house and back up to their nest on a pole in the back field, the one I call the Serengeti. We have a harrier hawk scouring all the fields looking for little critters, often with crows dive-bombing the hawk. A red-tailed hawk cruises the next field over quite regularly. A covey of quail stays close to low-to-the-ground bushes for cover. A doe looks for sprouting anything in the front field while five deer wander through another field. House wrens are checking out our gutters for nest-building and we hope they decide against it. We’ve put out many wonderful and oddball birdhouses and trust something will catch their fancy. Every morning, duck pairs and squads of Canada geese honk and fly from night roosts to the water and back again in the evening.
We are safe and healthy on our island off an island, the dual moats giving us a sense of security that means nothing, of course. Mad River Valley, we miss you and we wish you health and sanity as you slow down too.
Patricia Floyd and Mark Killian
Chappaquiddick, MA
