Word: waterston
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...April 1958 a wave of excitement swept through Britain's museums and bird clubs. After a 42-year absence, a pair of ospreys was spotted at Loch Garten. Ornithologist George Waterston, Scottish representative of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, stood guard while the hen laid three eggs. The oölogist enemy was watching, too. At 2 a.m. one dark night, an egg snatcher climbed the tree. The defenders gave chase, but the oölogist escaped into a nearby forest, dropping and smashing two of the eggs as he fled...
...same mating place year after year. Would these return? As bird lovers waited, the first report came on April 18: the male was back; three days later, the female followed. The ornithologists were ready. In a campaign that rivals the efforts to protect North America's whooping crane, Waterston and his aides strung barbed wire around the base of the tree, planted the vicinity with booby traps, built an observation post with a covered approach. Relays of guards kept 24-hour watch, helped at night by a parabolic microphone so sensitive that they could hear the female panting...
...until the middle of June, when the young were safely hatched, did Waterston tell his proud secret. By then the young birds were almost as big as squabs on their diet of a pound of fish daily, and the written record of their family life filled 1,250 pages. Next year, if all goes well, there will be more osprey families on bonny Scotland's barbed-wire braes...