Wild Wings

Callum’s friends are flabbergasted to find an osprey nesting on the McGregor farm. They also realize that Callum kept the news a secret and are hurt that he didn’t trust them. Callum realizes that he does need his friends right now, as his Dad said. He tells them about Iris and her migration route. Then, the boys go back to Callum’s computer to trace the bird’s whereabouts. She will soon be flying through the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. Euan takes a stab at sketching an osprey. Though his artwork isn’t as good as Iona’s, Callum approves; “[i]t was three boys in a boat on the loch, and an osprey catching a huge brown trout from the water” (151).

When the boys go to school the following day, they are given an internet assignment to research castles. When their teacher, Mrs. Wicklow, leaves the room, Rob switches to the osprey migration tracking site to check on Iris. By the time Mrs. Wicklow returns, she finds the boys engaged in a chair race and insists on seeing how much progress they have made on their project. Rob quickly switches to another screen that displays Castillo de Loarre, a fortress in the Pyrenees.