A Migrating Osprey In Our Area
What a wonderful osprey treat! This past Tuesday late afternoon I sighted a migrating juvenile osprey in our area, searching for a fish for dinner. He flew around our osprey nest, even swooping a couple of times at a blue heron at the base of the nest who was also searching for dinner. The blue heron was unfazed, so the osprey continued some aerial searching. He started several dives but cut them short, not immersing in the water. You will notice in some of the photos that this osprey is missing a tail feather or two, but otherwise seemed healthy. After about 30 minutes with no success, he flew away to search another area. I felt lucky to catch his sighting in our area so late in the season!
If that wasn’t a surprise, you’re not going to believe this! I was preparing the set-up to blog about our visiting osprey this morning when I saw a bird fly close by the window where I was sitting. I jumped up with camera in hand and caught sighting of the same osprey with the missing tail feather(s) from Tuesday. I couldn’t believe it!
This time he did three dives, hitting the water with tremendous force each time. An osprey can reach 80 mph before hitting the water! The third time he was successful with a nice size fish. Here is a sequence of the last dive. Due to his speed, the first photos are out of focus (I had a hard time keeping the camera on him!) but it showed his ‘form’ before plunging into the water. Also notice the unfortunate fish is trying to wiggle lose from the osprey’s tight grip.
And off he went to enjoy a well-earned dinner! The following photo shows something we don’t normally see during our osprey season, geese in the same scene as an osprey!
Those of you in the community, keep your eye out for him, you might catch more sightings! Hopefully, he doesn’t suddenly high-tail it south too quickly with storm Tomas still brewing. The numerous, nonstop hurricanes and tropical storms in the Caribbean these past two months have proven unforgiving to the many migrations occurring. I am still following Univ. of North Carolina Professor Rob Bierregaard’s migrating ospreys with the gps transmitters, and unfortunately several succumbed within some of these storms. His link is to the right in my Cool Links list for up-to-date status of those still enroute and those that have reached South America successful for the winter.
Finally, here’s a couple of photos of the blue heron who was unfazed by the visiting osprey.
This blue heron has been an early morning and early evening visitor for about a week now at low tide, makes for better fish grabbing! He’s been a delight to watch with binoculars. And if any of you are within sight of CBEC with binoculars or telescope, one or two eagles perch over there often, another bird that is magnificent to watch. Keep in touch, I will continue to blog more photos of the wildlife in our area during the winter season. Take care!
