Every year I would wait with great anticipation for the phone call, "Guess who's back?!?" "Meet you at the nest?" "See you there!"

Fisher and I logged many hours under that nest. In warm, sunny weather, the cold, the heat, wind, humidity and sometimes mosquito laden, but we didn't care. It was fun and we enjoyed it. We would joke at times that we must be crazy. Between the two of us we have thousands of photos of her.

Lady Blue also bonded a friendship that no shooter can ever break. I learned about ospreys and other wild things and also, I learned about my friend. We shared laughs and troubles, we shared portions of our lives with one another. No shooter will ever take that from me.

It sucks (for lack of a better word) because the shooter took something not only from Fisher and myself, but from our whole community. We met lots of very nice people there. We would talk about ospreys, camera gear, where they were from, as many would come from out of town for the softball tournaments that are often held there. They would also share with us their wildlife experiences. One person said, "I want to be part of your group." We just laughed and said, You are!

This year was the first year an educational program was held in conjunction with banding the chicks. There were many young kids that came to watch and were interested in learning more about ospreys. It was an accessible nest, hands on learning if you will, all for FREE. The ospreys were hurting NO ONE.

What a waste.

Well shooter, guess what. Come next March I will still wait with great anticipation for the phone call. We will still go to the nest site and watch and wait. We will still monitor what goes on there. And hopefully we might get to band there again.

There is no way in hell you will ever take that away from us.