One day last week, when my wife and I were returning home from our grocery shopping trip in town, we drove by the Blue Heron rookery that I photographed last year. As we passed, my wife saw an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) flying over the pond that sits in front of the rookery. I had never seen an osprey at this location, but the landowners had told me that every spring an osprey makes a stop at the pond during it’s northbound migration. Living ~8 miles away from the pond, we hurried home and put away the groceries. I then changed clothes, grabbed my photo equipment and headed back to the rookery.
When I got to the pond, the osprey was sitting in a dead tree at the opposite end of the pond. I set up my tripod and camera and patiently waited for some activity. After about 20 minutes, the osprey flew from the tree and began soaring over the pond, with his eye to the water. As he continued to fish, I began grabbing some images. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Three times the osprey tucked his wings and dove headfirst into the water. On the third attempt, he was successful. But I was too far away to capture any good images … maybe next time!
By the way, after the osprey flew away with the fish, I walked around the pond, to the rookery and observed the activity there. There were at least 6-8 herons incubating eggs! So it won’t be long until I’m spending some more time at the rookery :o)
