Ospreys’ return signals spring on the Bay

Hi Sarah, thank you for the lovely comment. It is always nice to hear from readers and see the beauty of the Chesapeake remembered (even out in Indiana!).
The phosphorescence you were seeing in the water could have been any of several species depending on time of year, tide and water quality, but you were most likely seeing dinoflagellates. You can read about different types of bioluminescence in this article: https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/parade_of_lights. If the glow you saw appeared in singular locations rather than dispersed through the water, it may have been a moon or comb jellyfish.

Grew up on the western shore right on the Bay. At 64, I'm learning more and more how that isolated tranquility formed who I am and can imagine who I'll be when I pass on. Daddy was a waterman in it's hayday - 40 bushel limit on clams, abundance of oysters, phosphorous in the water at night. (I'd love to know what they really are and their name). Meanwhile on March 17 of EVERY year, Daddy would sit sideways in his kitchen chair and watch for the Osprey to come home. I don't think he was ever disappointed. Our home was right on the marsh of Jack Creek with the Bay beyond. Home for the osprey was a free-standing - if you can call it that - abandoned duck blind. Every winter we though it was it's last for sure, but it held on, to the appreciation of our family and the osprey!

I have so many memories like this one. Nothing prize winning, but life - real life as as waterman's daughter, and no one to pass these treasures on to. When I'm gone, they are gone. If you need a freelance author for a story or a paragraph that I might be able to contribute to, please contact me. I love to write and feel a tremendous responsibility to tell every tid-bit I can think of that I recall, or that Daddy told me.

Thanks for the Osprey. Thanks for the memories.
Sarah (Crandell) Thomas
originally of Shady Side; now NE Indiana.