The Osprey are Back! June 2020

The osprey have their nest back, after demolishing the nest and removing the geese, but I don't see any signs of juveniles.  I suspect they have another nest in the trees and use this one for fishing.

St. Mary's County saved ospreys

I recently took a boat ride in the creek to view all of the osprey nests. Many osprey live along the creeks and waterways in St. Mary's County. When the osprey started disappearing years ago, the residents put up platforms for the osprey to build nests on. The osprey usually appear in mid March and leave by mid September. They primarily eat fish, hence their other name, the fish hawk. I captured this osprey when he/she was landing and liked how dynamic the photo looked. Photographing birds takes a lot of patience and lots of photos. This photograph won second place in the August Advanced Digital Photo Competition at the St. Mary's County Camera Club.

The Ospreys will be in St. Mary's County soon!

We’ve had so much snow this year in St. Mary’s County. It is nice to remember that spring will eventually come. We have an osprey nest in the water just off our property. Usually the female osprey shows up between March 10 and 15th, followed by her male companion. They live in the County until mid September, before flying south to Central and South America for the winter. The female weighs almost twice as much as the male. They are such a joy to see, even if they “yell” at us when we get too close. If you want to learn more about osprey, I recommend two books, "The Fish Hawk: Osprey" (Northword Wildlife Series) by Stephen Carpenteri and a children's book "Ospreys" by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent both currently available from Amazon and elsewhere. Please share with me any good locations in St. Mary’s County to see osprey. I’d love to photograph more of them!