The Osprey are Coming March 13, 2022

Here's an osprey photo from March 2021 that I like to call Push Me Pull You. 

Today the local osprey nest had an eagle in the morning with some food.  An osprey didn't like it, probably complained, and the eagle left in a hurry.  The osprey was keeping an eye on the nest for a while, flying around overhead, but not landing on the nest.  

I'm never sure if the osprey visitors have picked out their nest, or are just trying out a few nests in the area, before the mate shows up.

Recent Eagles September 2021

 The osprey have flown to South America or the south and the bald eagles  already came to visit.

The Osprey are Back at their Nest

You check your way, I’ll check mine

Making himself (or herself) heard

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.

Award Winning photo from St Mary's County Camera Club in August 2017

I forgot to post my 1st place Eagle Nesting Photo from the Wildlife theme in last month's competition.  This bald eagle was building up a nest in October 2016 when I caught it flying around with a stick.  I prefer to use more recent photos in competition.

I have been spotting an eagle nearby lately, since the osprey have left for the season.  Last year we rarely saw any.  A neighbor put up several bird blinds for hunting and the eagles disappeared.  I expect the same thing will happen this year.  I need to enjoy seeing them while I can.

The Osprey are Arriving!

Yesterday, an osprey showed up on our nest around dusk.  Today, I saw a bird again.  It isn't there now, but they typically wander around a bit before fixing up their chosen nest.  The neighbor's nest was just occupied a few days ago.  Usually, the bigger female arrives first.  Here is a picture of our visiting bird in today's gray weather.

The Osprey Pair

As I showed on March 16th, the ospreys are back on their nests.  I saw 2 on my way home yesterday along route 5. 

Here are a few shots of this year's osprey pair.  They generally mate for life and often return to the same location, so I don't know if this is a new pair or not.  You may recall that our male osprey died last year, and might have been killed by another bird.

They have already had one argument with the neighboring osprey, according to Jim.  

The Sequence Photo Challenge

We had an interesting theme for the St. Mary's County Camera Club August Competition-make a sequence of photos all included in one picture.  The basic idea was to show a moving subject multiple times, while the background remained the same.  This only works with multiple exposures or several layers in a photo creating a composite of pictures.

I chose a photo that was meaningful to me.  Every year, I wait with baited breath to photograph the osprey juveniles as they learn how to fly.  I never know how lucky I will be.  Will they learn to fly at noon, when the light is poor?  Will the juveniles learn to fly on a rainy or foggy day?  Will they learn to fly while I am away from the nest?

This year there was one juvenile.  She learned to fly on a Saturday around 9:30 am.  Lucky me.  They usually flap their wings vigorously and hop up and down a lot!!!  I had watched her practice for a few days.  Finally she took off at a shallower angle than usual toward the south.  (Generally, the experienced birds fly more west and at a steeper angle.)  I managed to get the flight on film with four still shots.

I spent quite a lot of time trying to come up with another sequence photo to add to the competition, but I didn't succeed.  I tried using amusement park photos, but there was lots of equipment that seemed like it would ruin the photo, since the rides were always attached and couldn't be separated to create individual images instead of blurs.  In the end, a blurred looking train photo was the winner.  I took second place with "First Flight".  I think if I did the photo again, I would only show 3 images of the osprey, so she wasn't flying out of the photo so much.  Which photo do you prefer?  The face is fairly hidden in the highest image.  Altogether, it was an interesting challenge.

Second Place photo- 4 images layered

Photo of 3 composite images

Survival of the Fittest

Recently, I noticed a dead osprey face down, wings outstretched on a neighbor's lawn.  I suspected it had fallen from the sky because it wasn't huddled into a ball, but spread wide.  I don't think anyone saw what happened.  After a few days, I wondered if it was one of "our" ospreys, since lately I only saw the juvenile and one adult.  Given the fact that earlier there was a private war going on involving "our" osprey, I suspect the bird could have been attacked.  We will never know.

Osprey family in July.  The juvenile is the little speckled bird in the middle.

Since then, I photographed the juvenile defending their food from an adult bird by holding it down with a claw (not very successfully).

The juveniles can be identified easily by their orange-yellow eyes, while the adults have yellow eyes.  

Two osprey in the family with the juvenile in the background.

Great Blue Heron Portrait Session.

After the osprey leave our nearby nest, other birds such as bald eagles and great blue herons often visit to look around and “play” in a borrowed nest.  I wanted to share a sequence of photos of this great blue heron. It was feeling lively on the particular day I photographed and I was thrilled with the various poses that resulted.  It was almost like having a family portrait session. Now let me see your right profile, your left profile and please lift your right leg, thank you!   I was glad I had the patience to wait for all of the ways it moved.   Now if only I could do it again with a longer lens.  These are all heavily cropped from the originals.

This last photo was taken on another day when it was windy, but I think it is the same heron posing.