Charlie's Fake Blog

Yesterday Linda and I repeated last year's themed anniversary activity by taking a train ride from Cumberland MD to Frostburg MD aboard a train run by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad .  The excursion starts in Cumberland, goes to Frostburg, turns around and goes back to Cumberland. The conductor looked the part. There were some scenic sights along the way.  You had to keep an eye out for them because railroads are built for utility, not tourism.   Most of the time we were seeing trees, rocky banks where they had excavated for the tracks and the back yards of people's houses. Just about every ridge in the Allegheny's has or will have wind mills.

Today I got a chance to take some closeup pictures of an Osprey. It had landed in my brother-in-law's yard and was just standing under one of the trees. There is obviously something wrong with the poor critter  since I was able to get rather close. The top picture is of Donald, my brother-in-law, who was also rather  amazed that he could get a close look at a bird he had only ever seen from a distance. The spread wings are a threat, so after this shot I backed away. If you look at it's right eye you can see either damage or disease. Either way I suspect it would cause the bird a great deal of trouble seeing as it relies on keen eyesight to get food. The geese are nesting and the gander is keeping an eye on the raptor.