eggs
Don't believe I've mentioned it this year, but've been checking the osprey nest at Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, Colorado. Nesting season is underway and the osprey couple have four eggs. Nature's best show of the cycle of life, repeated starting every spring, year after year, and going into August or September.
I've been watching this nest for, must be about fifteen years now, since before we moved from The Old Place to 7H. I think so but am not sure it's the same mom bird I started with, but there have been, I guess this is the third male bird. The first one I remember, the large company of watchers who converse online named him "Super Dad." One spring he didn't show up and was replaced by a younger male osprey whom the watchers called something like "dark legs" - - he lasted two or three years, then last spring or the spring before he didn't arrive and the current bird, a young male, moved in.
Osprey live with a great deal of instinct, they don't decide every year whether to return from migration, if the bird is alive and well he/she does The Thing that osprey's do. If one doesn't show up, we know the bird is dead. There was a bit of excitement this year because the dad bird arrived first as usual, a day of so later the mom bird had not arrived and a new female arrived and caught the male bird's eye. Shortly, though, mom bird arrived and wasted no Time asserting herself, driving the new girlfriend away, and taking her proper place. Again, I'm not sure, and I could check, but seems to me this female bird has owned this nest for about twenty years. If last year's mate doesn't arrive she always seems perfectly fine with whoever moves in on her to take on the dad bird role.
This is strictly between nature and the osprey couple. One year we watched a hatchling crawl out in the snow and freeze to death - - after a few days the mom bird carried the dead chick away. Another year one of the hatchlings crawled up to the edge and fell out. Another year none of the eggs hatched (or maybe some did and the hatchlings died, I don't recall for sure). One year the campground authorities decided the nest must be infected with a disease, so when the osprey couple migrated in late summer/early autumn and before they returned the following spring, the authorities moved equipment up close and cleared the nest away completely. Arriving on Time that spring, the bird couple set to work and quickly had built a usable nest on the platform.
Ospreys eat fish almost exclusively, and this nest is right on a body of fresh water that has plenty of fish to sustain them feeding themselves, and where the fledglings learn to fish for themselves before they migrate.
I am always surprised at how quickly the chicks grow up to about the same size as their parent birds, learn to fly, are taught and learn to catch fish, and the day comes when the young osprey with white flecks at the end of its feathers just ups and flies away, migrating to its winter location and never seen again. I can't imagine how a migrating fledgling knows where to go, and I have no idea whether all or some or none of its nest mates migrate to the same distant location or all different, way south in Mexico or Central or South America. It's a daring life, and I've read that only fifty percent of them live through the first year. The ospreys are entirely unrelated during winter migration, the mom bird and dad bird do not stay together and aren't involved with each other except during spring and summer mating and nesting season.
An osprey stays in its winter location for a year or two before taking off and starting its own migrating pattern, returning north, generally to the same general area where it began life being kept warm by a parent bird incubating as it developed in an egg.
Anyway, it's always very exciting.
+++++++++
On the personal front, I'd gotten into a pattern of taking a long, two or three hour morning nap, often starting soon after breakfast and sleeping until lunchTime; then another nap of a couple of hours after lunch, someTimes sleeping until four-thirty or five o'clock. A problem has been always feeling really lousy groggy when waking up from the nap and the grogginess never really going away.
More, I read an article over last weekend of long-term study results (synopsis, scroll down) that associated morning naps for the elderly with higher mortality rate. And every hour of the nap takes so much off of life expectancy. So, I decided to check myself: my experience has been that a meal, especially a meal with bread or grain products such as wheat cereals, gives me almost instant (within ten or fifteen minutes) sudden blood pressure plummet such that I can't stand or walk, and have to make my way to bed to lie down, thence the morning nap. The term is PPHT, post-prandial hypo-tension (hypo low, not hyper high). It doesn't happen so much after lunch or supper, IDK why.
I love the morning nap (and the afternoon nap too) except for the waking grogginess. But I'd not associated the sleepiness with my CHF and my other cardiac facts, so decided to do a test: I'd return to my Navy years practice of only coffee in the morning and nothing to eat until lunch Time. Trying it both Wednesday and Thursday, only coffee, and maybe a couple of mugs of coffee instead of just my usual single mug.
Both Wednesday and Thursday, I did not become sleepy, did not feel any need for a morning nap. Both days I pressed it, ate a normal lunch, and still no PPHT and no need for an afternoon nap. So, I've satisfied myself that my drive to lie down, at least for the long morning nap, is related to my diet and not to my heart issues.
My intent is to stick to this experiment for a week, and then, since I love breakfast, eat only a small one, focusing on proteins with no bread or other significant carbs. Eggs. Sardines. Salmon, Tuna. And black coffee as usual, hot & black. I still have a little store of tinned sardines from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and some American - - which I enjoy with mustard.
Life is Good. I'm seeing how long I can stretch it out and make it last.
RSF&PTL
T90
- Morning Naps: Participants who napped in the morning had a roughly 30% higher mortality risk compared to those who napped in the afternoon.
- Duration: Each additional hour of daily daytime napping was associated with a 13% higher mortality risk.
- Frequency: Each extra nap per day corresponded to roughly a 7% higher risk.
- Population: The study followed 1,338 adults (average age 81) with a 19-year follow-up.
- Underlying Disease Indicator: Excessive daytime napping is likely a symptom of deteriorating health (like cardiovascular issues or neurodegeneration), not the cause of death, say researchers.
- Shift in Patterns: The shift toward earlier (morning) naps may suggest disrupted circadian rhythms.
- When to See a Doctor: While occasional naps are normal, an increase in nap frequency or duration, or a shift to morning naps, should be discussed with a doctor, experts suggest in a, "Frequent and Morning Naps May Indicate Health Problems and," article from AOL.