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Posts Tagged ‘Osprey’

Flying right at me

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 1, 2019| 21 Comments »

The sky was mostly covered in clouds yesterday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge when an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) decided to fly right at me after it had caught a fish.

I love the look of a head-on shot of a flying bird, but capturing such a shot is not easy. First, the bird has to cooperate and most of the time, it seems, birds like to fly away from me and not toward me. Secondly, I have to be able to capture and maintain focus on the bird as it is approaching, which can be a challenge with a heavy telephoto zoom lens. Finally, I have to calibrate my shooting speed so that I don’t fill up the buffer of my camera before the bird gets close.

Things worked out pretty well for this shot. If you click on the image and zoom in on it, you will see that I managed to keep those yellow eyes in reasonably sharp focus and even the beak is in focus. You don’t get a very good view of the fish—you will have to wait until I capture of profile shot of an osprey with its catch.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Osprey nests

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on April 20, 2019| 3 Comments »

When it comes to choosing a nesting site, Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge seem to be opportunistic. Some lucky couples are able to snag pre-existing nesting sites that require only minor improvements, while others are forced to build entirely new nests.

This past Thursday I photographed a nest that is annually built on top of one of the duck hunting blinds in the waters off of the wildlife refuge. Earlier in the season, the ospreys would fly away as I walked by on a trail, but now that the trees are leafing out, the ospreys have a bit more privacy.

The nest in the second image is a new nest, built in the last couple of weeks and probably still under construction. It is adjacent to the location where the nest in the third shot used to be. For reasons that are not clear to me, that nesting platform has disappeared and only a part of the post remains. I believe that the new nest may have been built by  the couple that occupied that nesting platform earlier in the season.

Osprey

Osprey

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Beware of sleeping ospreys

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2019| 4 Comments »

Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) in my area have been building nests in all kinds of places, including on some channel markers in the Potomac River off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I personally don’t really think that there is enough space there for a nest, but the ospreys seem to think otherwise.

I am amused by the “No wake” sign that they have chosen. During busy periods, I would think that “No sleep” would be more appropriate.

Have a wonderful weekend. 🙂

osprey

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Look, Ma, no hands

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on March 27, 2019| 9 Comments »

This past week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I observed two large birds consuming large fish using very different techniques. The first, a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), carefully positioned the fish and then swallowed it in a single big gulp.

An Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), pictured below, used a much slower and methodical approach, tearing small chunks off of the fish. It takes a lot of bites to finish off a fish in this way. In between bites, the osprey would often look around to make sure no other bird was approaching and attempting to steal its catch.

When it needed to tug extra hard on the fish, the osprey would sometimes extend its wings in what I assume was an effort to stay balanced and keep from falling out of the tree. I believe that is what was going on at the moment when I captured this image.

Osprey

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sharing a fish?

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on March 24, 2019| 5 Comments »

I captured this image this past Tuesday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge as an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) was starting to take off from its perch high in a tree with a partially eaten fish firmly in its grasp. I had watched the osprey consume the top portion of the fish and hope that it was carrying the remainder to its mate.

I am somewhat romantic, so I want to believe that this is a story about love and sharing and caring—and maybe it is. It is also possible that the osprey is selfish and fearful and is seeking a more secluded, secure perch when it can enjoy the rest of its catch without having to worry about it being stolen by eagles or potential predators like me.

Whatever the reality of the actual situation, I love the way that this image shows off the osprey’s impressive wingspan and how the v-shape of the wings is repeated in some of the branches and in the tail of the fish.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Osprey nest at dawn

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on March 17, 2019| 10 Comments »

Saturday morning at dawn I noted than an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) had already claimed the most prominent nesting site at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. There are several man-made nesting platforms scattered through the wildlife refuge and there are usually some additional osprey nests in trees and one on the top of a hunting blind on stilts in the water. This particular nesting platform is visible from the parking lot, so it was easy to check to see if it was occupied.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Return of the Ospreys 2019

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on March 15, 2019| 5 Comments »

How do you mark the beginning of spring? For some, it is the time when crocuses and daffodils begin to bloom. Here in the Washington D.C. area, one of the signs of spring is the blossoming of the cherry trees.

For me, I consider spring to have sprung when Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) reappear. These impressive raptors, sometimes referred to as fish hawks, depart in the autumn and throughout the winter I eagerly await their return. Why? I gladly spend countless hour in fascination and enchantment as I watch osprey soaring through the skies, hovering in the air, and occasionally plunging feet-first into the water to catch a fish. It is also fun to watch them gathering materials to build or repair nests.

Yesterday I spotted my first ospreys this season while exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on an unusually warm and sunny March day. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from those encounters, which mark the return of the ospreys for 2019.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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