When Tim Leland went out with his shears one morning in mid-July to trim the bushes around his driveway in Wasque on Chappaquiddick, he checked in on his neighbors — a pair of ospreys that built a scraggly nest on a withered tree nearby to hold their two chicks.

Over the summer he had become accustomed to how the birds lived and their manner of conversation. But on that day he heard a much different sound coming from the nest.

“I certainly became aware that the two ospreys were making an awful racket,” Mr. Leland said.

He said their cries weren’t as ratchety as they typically are when someone walks by. Instead, he said the cries sounded solemn and deflated.

Mr. Leland put his shears down and walked over to see what might be upsetting them. He noticed their nest had been blown off the tree, with one of the osprey still perched on top of the tree and the other circling above it.

“They were parents looking down at what was probably a complete scramble of twigs on the ground looking for their babies,” Mr. Leland said.

Mr. Leland didn’t know what caused the nest to fall, and he didn’t want to get too close and disturb the birds, so he walked back to the house dejected, not knowing what else he could do.

But the next morning, when he went to check on the birds, he saw that someone had put up a wooden pole about five to six-feet tall, right beside the tree, complete with a flat surface. And the nest had been restored on the top of this new perch.

He ran back to the house to tell his wife the happy news.

“It was like a magic act of some sorts,” Mr. Leland said. “Somebody had taken a rabbit out of a hat and in five minutes, waved a wand and there’s the rabbit back in it.”

Later that evening, while on a late-afternoon walk, Mr. Leland saw one of osprey with a fish in its claws heading home to feed the chicks, which had survived the ordeal. The osprey family was officially back together again.

After some investigation, Mr. Leland learned that the Trustee’s Chappaquiddick beach manager, Joseph McClaughlin, was the magician who saved the ospreys.

Mr. McLaughlin was walking down Wasque avenue when he noticed the broken nest on the ground. He called Rob

Bierregaard, a Vineyard osprey expert, for guidance.

It took Mr. McLaughlin about 30 minutes to build the wooden platform and pole, he said. When he retrieved the nest to place it on the platform, he got an up close look at it.

“Their nest is really a work of art,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “It’s got thick sticks on the bottom, smaller to the top and then the final layer [is] seaweed so it’s nice and soft.”

He said the two chicks were still intact in the nest, looking up at him. Each was the about the size of a football, and their wings were a dark brown and their talons seemingly fully-developed.

Mr. McLaughlin said he continues to watch the ospreys every day, noticing how the male stands on the old tree watching over the family while the female feeds the chicks.

He said that since humans have done so much to harm wildlife, playing an active role in conservation is not only important, it also feels good.

“I’m a proud parent,” Mr. McLaughlin joked.

Mr. Bierregaard added that osprey conservation is a true Vineyard success story, largely due to the efforts of wildlife specialist Gus Ben David, who died last summer.

When Mr. Bierregaard first started working with Mr. Ben David on re-introducing the birds to the Island in 1971, there were only two pairs here. Today, he said there are roughly 145 pairs.

In 2025, Mr. Bierregaard said Island osprey have produced about 140 chicks.

“This has been the best year ever,” Mr. Bierregaard said.

For the Wasque osprey family, Mr. Bierregaard said his team will eventually build a more permanent structure to host the nest. He also said that the swift action by Mr. McLaughlin is a triumph worth celebrating.

What could have been a tragedy became a moving testament of compassion.

“This story should have a happy ending,” he said.