Early Spring Ospreys #2

Some more Osprey shots from Monday..................


At one spot west of town, Ospreys gather in April to catch, I guess,  a type of fish that migrates into the river at this time of year.

Here's a sequence of shots of one that caught a fish relatively close by...........

Of course you have to pick a spot and then curse as they hunt near the spot you were going to choose but decided not to.

Sometimes you miss a bit though........

Different birds flew off in different directions suggesting that several pairs share the river's resources. These flew upstream...........

There were at least 3 of them..............

You can get an idea of how strong they are by the relative size of some of the fish they catch. These 2 pics are cropped quite a lot...............the gulls eventually forced the Osprey to drop its catch.

This one caught a huge one but couldn't lift it out of the water.

It is a great place for BIFs especially in sunny weather.

A bit repetitive but growing up in the UK these scenes are rarely witnessed up close.

It was a wonderful afternoon. It had almost the perfect ending. One Osprey was perched on a sign next to the road.............we stopped and just as my finger touched the shutter it flew off in the opposite direction. Not like this one below which wasn't shy and looked straight at me........