Sotterley Eagle Walk

Fellow Camera Club member, Ken Barlow, offered a walk to go see where the eagle nests were at and near Historic Sotterley Plantation.  He taught us about eagles as we walked and of course took lots of photos.  Some of the walkers came from other camera clubs too.  We actually saw an eagle being chased by a crow far in the distance, but I got a better photo of an osprey that was a little closer.  I played with the vases in the window for fun.

Redbud trees

Creek

Temporary saddle

Nearby eagle nest

Sotterley Eagle nest

Osprey

Vase in Window

Vase in Window Stylized

 

Osprey Have Arrived for 2026

The osprey arrived two weeks ago and promptly had about a 30 minute fight with the geese.  The geese won but lost the nest somehow the next day.  All the excitement happened while I was in the middle of a virtual doctor appointment, so no photos.  Here they are nest building.  It kind of looked like one bird wacked its mate with a branch.  It was hard to tell because of the angle.

Allens Fresh Run

 I visited Allen's Fresh Run to see the birds in July.  (I am still catching up with some of my posts.  There were reports of an unusual visit by Roseate Spoonbills, but unless you were an experienced kayaker who knew how to avoid being stranded during low tide, the distance was sometimes very far.  I found that there were quite a few other birds around too, but mostly at quite a distance even with a very long lens.  One of the days, I even saw the sunset too.

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

Roseate Spoonbills

Juvenile Bald Eagle with wires

Point Lookout State Park Beach Trip

 We wandered down to Point Lookout to hear the surf and view the Bay from a different perspective.  

I grabbed a shot of a bird over the causeway and realized it was an osprey with a fish later. Many of the osprey have already flown south.

Nearby, someone had a sun umbrella disaster.  I don't know if it was fixable.  

We sat down to enjoy lunch and I spotted a few boats.  I didn't realize the fishing net posts had a bird on every post till later. 

We had a nice lunch and I walked down to the beach to see the Lighthouse from a distance.

Near the beach I spotted a songbird I didn't recognize.  Maybe a Vireo?

  

Playing with Osprey Photos

I had a nice sequence of an osprey landing on the osprey nest and decided to make a sort of movement image of it by adding the photos together.  It is far from perfect, but it was a fun learning experience combining a batch of layers.  

Osprey April 8, 2024

After photographing the eclipse, I decided to photograph the neighbor's osprey since I had the longest lens handy and I didn't have to carry it very far .  This year our nest is occupied by a pair of geese.  I prefer the osprey, but unless they object to the geese, there isn't much we can do, but watch the geese.  No little ones yet on either nest.

Two Visits to Newtowne Neck State Park

We visited Newtowne Neck State Park in St. Mary's County twice to enjoy the beach at the end of Newtowne Neck Road in the perfect weather.  First we stayed to the West and then returned to see the Eastern side of the beach.  There are quite a few coves created by rock jetties.  Beautiful!  We didn't exactly have to  fight off the crowds in September.  I've heard it is quite crowded in the summer.

Osprey

Kayak Launch area

Sunbather

Manor House

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church