Today’s post again features the “fish hawk”, the Osprey. A little “gold mine” has hit in our cove … frequent visits from several ospreys. I’ve seen ospreys here, all throughout the summer, but their visits were very infrequent. However, lately there has been a steady stream of ospreys flying into our cove and fishing, often seeing 1-2 ospreys at a time, and over several times a day. Here are some images I captured yesterday afternoon, from our dock at the lake house (Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri). In these first two images, the osprey is slowly circling overhead, while intently keeping an eye on the waters below:
As it turned out, apparently no fish were seen. So, the osprey moved on out into the lake’s main channel, where I lost visual contact. But a few minutes later, this osprey appeared … with a small fish in it’s talons:
A few minutes later, a second osprey flew over, but did not take the time to circle and check out our waters.
Why the frequent visits lately? I’m guessing there is a nest nearby, resulting in multiple ospreys visiting our cove, searching for food. With the summer’s human traffic down, I’m hoping for more osprey visits … a closeup dip into the lake would be awesome to catch!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon 100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens
- Handheld, with IS “On”
- ISO 250
- Aperture f/8
- Shutter Speed 1/1000 sec. to 1/1500 sec.