It’s 11 a.m. April 1, 2018, Easter Sunday, with overcast skies, west winds, and temperatures in the 50s. The pious residents of Mauricetown, New Jersey, are filing into the Methodist church to celebrate renewal, rebirth, and a rite of spring. High over the steeple, its wings held in benediction, is one of our 10 resident Ospreys, newly returned from a six-month exile in the Amazon Basin. The bird is eager to get on with the serious business of courtship, mating, and the rearing of young. By August the nestlings must be ready to migrate and carry on the important work of reigning over the food chain. As a student of birds, I find the Osprey’s return affirming. But there was a time, not many years ago, that the species’ future was anything but assured. Like Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon populations, the “fish hawks” were suppressed from hatching eggs by the insecticide DDT half a century earlier. In fact, so dire was the plight of this large, handsome bird of prey...