Osprey Around Oyster Cove

The osprey have come back from migration in good numbers this season in our Kent Narrows/Grasonville, Maryland, area. Whether home, driving around the area, or about the docks and restaurants (the tiki bars have opened!), osprey are in the sky everywhere, searching for or carrying back fish, as well as nesting materials to build their nests stronger with their impending offspring soon to arrive. With binoculars, I can watch the activity of three osprey nests at a distance from my balcony, each having a mate on their nest at all times, indicating they are incubating eggs. Last year, our Olivia laid her first of two eggs April 3rd, with that first one hatching May 8. So in the next 2-4 weeks, there will be many osprey chicks hatching in the mid-Chesapeake Bay waterways, they’ll be hungry & ready for some fish. Get ready osprey dads! Not only does the dad do most of the fishing for the chicks (mom does the feeding), but he will also continue to work hard on building the sides of the nest steeper to keep the curious chicks inside longer.

The first photo I’m sharing is one of those three nests, on the Kent Narrows south entrance channel marker #3. While watching them, a third osprey flew past me with a fish, and headed towards the pair on the marker, which caused a bit of a ruckus. All that open air space, and he had to fly by that close to the pair. Too funny!

Osprey on Kent Narrow South Entrance Channel Marker #3

As previous & disappointingly reported, our Oyster Cove nest platform continues to remain unoccupied by an osprey pair this season. There’s not much of anything left of last year’s beautiful nest, as visiting osprey take talons-full away and back to their own. The pair on the above nest, as well as the other two, all enjoy coming to our platform for a perch or to dine on a captured fish. Here are a few captures of some of those visits and our remaining nest over the past couple weeks.

Osprey

And when not perched on ours or their own nest, these osprey are above us in the skies, keeping their territory protected from the others. When they ‘cross’ each others ‘border’ or air space, a chase ensues to push the other back. It appears our nest platform is kind of like a border edge to them. They all continue to fly around and above our community, with an eye on each other and a scream or two to stay away.

Osprey

The osprey dive & fish capture is a sight to behold. So far this season, I’ve watched the dive but wasn’t camera-prepared before the plunge. Here’s a series of shots after the plunge. These were shot at a distance so the photos are a bit grainy after cropping, but the series shows the osprey’s success! By the way, this osprey is one of the pair that is on Kent Narrows channel marker #3 from the first photo. The mate was on egg-duty.

An Osprey just plunged for a fish. Was he successful?

Yes! And what a nice one!

Now to take it somewhere to enjoy.

But first the Osprey needs to position the fish within his talons for the flight.

As he turns the fish.....

the Osprey releases one set of his talons....

and then re-grasps the fish to position it straighter and tighter to him.

Now the Osprey can fly stronger and faster without losing his catch!

Osprey approaching his dinner perch.

The Osprey flies to the Kent Narrows Channel Marker #5 for a well-earned dinner.

So you can see, although our Oyster Cove osprey nest is unoccupied this season, we can still get our osprey-fix with the many others that have taken residency around the area. Thank goodness! 🙂

I’ll close with a couple of photos of other visitors besides the osprey who I’ve captured on our nest.

Crow

Sparrow and Red-Winged Blackbird

As always, thank you for stopping by!

Tags: bird, Birds, birdwatching, Chesapeake, Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Shore, Grasonville, Kent Narrows, Maryland, nature, Oliver, Olivia, Osprey, Oyster Cove, photographs, photos

37 thoughts on “Osprey Around Oyster Cove”

avian101 on 04/29/2012 at 1:03 PM said:

Great series Donna! Kudos! 🙂

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:31 PM said:
  
  Thank you HJ! 🙂
  
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dhphotosite on 04/29/2012 at 2:07 PM said:

Fantastic series of photos of my favorite bird of prey! The photos you took as it flies overhead are superb! Unfortunately I live to far inland to ever see them.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:33 PM said:
  
  Many thanks David, they are a beautiful bird of prey!
  
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Mary and John on 04/29/2012 at 4:23 PM said:

Donna,
We were so preoccupied with guests here this weekend I didn’t even look down towards Ollie and Olivia’s forgotten home :-(. I just got up and stood out on my deck and was so sad to see it all picked over and empty. Where did they go??
Sigh…..
Mary

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:35 PM said:
  
  I know, it is disappointing but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for next year!
  
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BigSkyKen on 04/29/2012 at 4:56 PM said:

Another compelling series, Donna! And the in-flight shots are excellent! It is amazing how well they can fly and re-position the luggage at the same time, great that you captured that moment.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:47 PM said:
  
  Thanks Ken! It is pretty cool, and I haven’t seen an osprey drop a fish yet. I’ve also seen an osprey eat the fish while flying. If the male is taking the fish back to the nest for his mate and offspring, he will eat the head for a little snack while enroute, then drop it and go for more!
  
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Bob Zeller on 04/29/2012 at 4:57 PM said:

A great post, Donna. I love those close-ups of the Osprey in flight the best, but all of them are great. Thanks for sharing them. 🙂

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:48 PM said:
  
  Thank you Bob! 🙂
  
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sheriffsmith on 04/29/2012 at 6:09 PM said:

Wonderful blog … I really like the close fly by sequence and the one where he caught the HUGE fish. He was probably full for the rest of the day. Tom

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:50 PM said:
  
  I bet he was, Tom! I noticed he didn’t go share with his mate over on the other channel marker where she was on egg-duty, bet he heard about that when he returned later unless he made up for it with a larger fish for her! 🙂
  
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latebloomerbuds on 04/29/2012 at 6:16 PM said:

Amazing shots Donna. I love the composition of the last one with the two little guys. Margie

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/29/2012 at 9:51 PM said:
  
  Thanks Margie! 🙂
  
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quietsolopursuits on 04/29/2012 at 11:36 PM said:

Thanks for posting all those great shots!

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/30/2012 at 4:05 PM said:
  
  You’re more than welcome, Jerry! Isn’t our bird photography fun?!! 🙂
  
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mkjohns on 04/29/2012 at 11:41 PM said:

Just wonderful. Thanks for the front row seat.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/30/2012 at 4:07 PM said:
  
  Thank you Martha for enjoying that front row seat with me! 🙂
  
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Ed on 04/30/2012 at 5:31 AM said:

WOW! Great catch(no pun intended) of the fishing osprey..:-))

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/30/2012 at 4:13 PM said:
  
  I’m gonna catch some better ones this summer! With the dive too!! 😉
  
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tootlepedal on 04/30/2012 at 6:50 AM said:

Excellent photographs. Youare lucky to be able to watch such fine birds so regularly. Here they are so rare that they are a tourist attraction.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/30/2012 at 4:46 PM said:
  
  Thanks Tom! I am thankful to get to watch the birds that come through or reside in our area. You get some great bird sightings too in the U.K.! Also, do you know of your celebrity osprey, Lady of the Loch of the Lowes, near Dunkeld? I’ve been wanting to mention to you about her. If not and/or for anyone else seeing this comment, here’s her recent article. She is the oldest osprey on record, she returned this year which in itself is a miracle, and now she’s incubating three eggs, her 22nd year of breeding, and 64 eggs to date! (average female lays 20 eggs in her lifetime) What a truly amazing osprey! The average osprey lives 10-15 years.
  
  Article 4/16/12:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17726409
  
  Daily blog on Lady:
  http://blogs.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey/
  
  What a Lady!
  
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Beth on 04/30/2012 at 7:38 AM said:

Thanks for sharing these beautiful birds with us. There seems to be plenty of activity and maybe that helps with the empty nest out front.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 04/30/2012 at 4:46 PM said:
  
  Thanks Beth, it sure does! 🙂
  
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montucky on 04/30/2012 at 11:40 PM said:

Great photos! It’s a real treat to see your photos of the Osprey. I see them every day here, but never close enough for good viewing or photos. They fish a section of the river near our house but nest several miles upstream.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 05/01/2012 at 9:49 PM said:
  
  Thanks Montucky! I’m glad you enjoy the osprey photos, I have a certain fondness for them as you can tell. 🙂
  
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Neita on 05/01/2012 at 3:53 AM said:

I’m happy to read that you still get to enjoy plenty of osprey even without Olivia & Oliver near by.

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- bayphotosbydonna on 05/01/2012 at 9:52 PM said:
  
  Thanks Neita, so sweet! Thank goodness we have many in the area, helps the osprey-fix! 🙂 But boy oh boy, I sure do miss O&O this year….
  
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mdphotographers on 05/01/2012 at 11:58 AM said:

Jeesh Donna. So many incredible photos in this post. Love seeing the Osprey’s in flight! Fantastic series of photographs..

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- bayphotosbydonna on 05/01/2012 at 10:12 PM said:
  
  Thanks MDP! We’ve had great numbers return this season, so it’s so easy to see one around Kent Narrows. When I returned home on Monday crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, just before coming off & reaching Kent Island, I saw eight osprey circling and trying to dive in a spot. They were in each other’s way while trying to set up their dive. All I could think was maybe there must have been a nice school of fish. What an osprey photo op! But can you see me now on Baltimore tv as the crazy lady stopping on the bridge to photograph ospreys? Not a good idea, lol. But I’ll not forget what I saw. 🙂
  
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  - mdphotographers on 05/02/2012 at 6:12 AM said:
    
    lol. I am glad that you did not have homeland security coming after you for that :-).. As long as they don’t confiscate your camera it may still have been worth it because you caught some amazing shots..
LindaSCgal on 05/01/2012 at 4:22 PM said:

I love all your pictures and your comments as well. Thanks for letting me know about the Loch of the Lowes osprey webcam. I’ve been glued to my computer!! 🙂 It is amazing to be able to watch this pair live in Scotland 24/7 anytime you want. Seeing them sleep and work together is awesome. Now i know what ours are probably doing since I can’t see them deep in the nest. The webcam is amazing and shows so much detail and answers questions that I have thought about previously. She is one experienced momma!! Notice the male leaves her alone a lot? Our pair is like that as well, but we know they are close by. That’s one of the things I love about your Oliver/Olivia. He seemed to be there more with her. Maybe because your nest was so open over water and ours and Loches are in trees. Maybe that is the reason.

On the webcam you can see when she is hungry when she is chirping away. I thought their nest would have higher sides but maybe that is just the angle we have. Pretty soon we will see the chicks!! How exciting!!

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- bayphotosbydonna on 05/04/2012 at 7:14 PM said:
  
  Glad you like Lady and the webcam. It is amazing to watch her, truly a great observation experience for an osprey lover as well as any bird lover. 🙂
  
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LindaSCgal on 05/01/2012 at 5:22 PM said:

Shucks!! I burned dinner because I was so interested in your website!! Not to worry…it was salvagable!! 🙂 I never saw a bird sleep like the female osprey from Loch!! She is going to need her rest for when those chicks are around 24/7!! 🙂

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- bayphotosbydonna on 05/04/2012 at 7:18 PM said:
  
  OH NO! Can’t be letting that happen, hubby won’t be so amused about the birds when his dinner’s getting burned! LOL Yep, with three to feed and care for, Lady’s going to have her ‘talons’ full….hopefully the daddy is geared up and ready to help Lady out when she needs assistance!
  
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Deb Platt on 05/04/2012 at 6:52 PM said:

Fantastic photos. I especially liked seeing the osprey get down in the water to snag a fish. I’ve not seen that with my own eyes.

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bayphotosbydonna on 05/04/2012 at 7:22 PM said:

Thanks Deb, it is pretty cool and the dive happens so fast! I hope you get to see it yourself some day. 🙂

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