Gackle                                           click to enlarge

Neighbors. Unless you live just south of the North Pole you’ve got some. Lots of times you like your neighbors, they’re helpful, they’re kind of quiet, they keep the place up, they don’t throw trash in your yard or steal your newspaper, they’re pretty good as neighbors go.

But then you sometimes get neighbors like Mrs. Gackle here, the ones who are constantly sticking their heads out the door, yelling at your kids to stay off the lawn, watching to see that you don’t park too close in front of her house, telling you if your dog even looks at her rose bushes she’s calling the cops, you know who I mean.

The Gackles, well mainly Mrs. Gackle we haven’t seen Mr. Gackle around the place, (everybody thinks she did him in and he’s buried in the basement) bought this loft in the same building that the Osprey’s own. It’s a pleasant place located in a nice part of town along an irrigation canal that always has plenty of fish in it when the waters high. We call it Willox St. manor and as the Osprey’s have the penthouse in this high-rise you can see their comings and goings, how big their family is and how fast they’re growing, when the Mr. brings home a trout and how large it is, pretty much everything that is going on in their lives.

Mrs. Gackle, who is renting, some would say nearly squatting, with the rent she’s paying, doesn’t like all the coming and going around her front door, and she goes to great lengths to tell everyone so. The Osprey’s completely ignore her except during the times when she is particularly obnoxious. Then they might slowly cruise by at nest level and you get the feeling that although they are primarily fish eaters they might be considering how Gackle would taste. When that happens Mrs. Gackle prudently stays inside until they return to their own business.

Life for the urban wildlife community has its ups and downs and the Gackles are just a small (but noisy) part of it. It won’t be long now and the Osprey’s will be returning from their winter vacation in Florida to take up residence in their summer home at Willox manor and start this years family. It is unclear whether they have renewed the Gackles lease.