Why "Osprey"?

We are a Florida company. And we are people of the outdoors. So I sought a company name that would reflect that. I quickly rejected the name “Spoonbill Fine Woodworking” and marveled that such a beautiful bird could have such a silly name. I was not going to follow the many thousands of others who appropriate any variant name associated with alligators. As a snorkeler I see so many ocean creatures. But “sea horse” and “sand dollar” were long ago appropriated by the beach-side motel industry.

And then I considered the osprey. These are raptors…..birds of prey. They are noble and graceful and beautiful. Unlike many of their raptor cousins, ospreys seem entirely comfortable around human habitation. Ospreys build huge, untidy nests almost anywhere with a small horizontal section near the top.. This can be on a tall pine tree in an isolated forest, or on the top of a convenience store sign on a busy road.

Ospreys are also consumers of fish. Obviously they do their hunting over water, where it is highly visible to anyone nearby. If you are in Florida, near the water, you will get to see ospreys. If you are a fisherman in Florida you will see an osprey crash into the water and then fly directly over you with a trophy fish. And if you just can’t get out on the water, visit a convenience store on a busy road.

Although graceful in flight, ospreys can be clumsy birds. If you end up in gridlocked traffic on a Florida bridge, it is not unheard of to have a trophy fish dropped onto the hood of your car. And if that happens, the offending osprey will try hard to get the fish back. Bald eagles are Florida birds and hunt for fish too. They skim over the water like fighter planes. At exactly the right moment they drop a single talon into the water and grab a fish. They continue the flight without missing a beat.

Not so, ospreys. Ospreys hover. They hover a hundred feet over the water until they see just what they want. And then they plummet. They just fall out of the sky and crash into the water. At some point in the confusion, they grab the fish. And they don’t let go. These are not ducks or pelicans or geese. They are raptors. And they don’t belong in the water. A mighty struggle ensues as the osprey attempts to regain flight. Meanwhile the fish, which does belong in the water, fights back.

The results are not a given. Ospreys can lose their lives at this point. Especially if they have a grip on an over-sized fish. But mostly they struggle into the air and fly over the nearest fisherman. Or car.

So I considered a company name. I knew I wasn’t cool enough to be a bald eagle. And I thought of the osprey. They are people loving residents of Florida. They are creatures of the waterfront. And they fall down and tend to drop things. All of these struck a familiar cord. And so we became Osprey Fine Woodworking.