Bay Photos by Donna

For sure I have missed our resident osprey pair, Oliver and Olivia this season, and our osprey platform has remained empty.  But the number of osprey in our area is astounding and has helped fill the void!  For the last month, I have been photographing them from my balcony as they fly around in search of fish to feed the many chicks that have recently hatched or nesting material to enlarge their nests to support their growing brood.

I’ll start with a couple visits to our platform.  It has been less frequent lately for any osprey visitors and I imagine it’s because they have had no time to hang out with their busy schedule.

When the osprey in the next three photos stopped by a couple days ago, I was disappointed he was behind the platform board for a good shot.

I started to go back in and he jumped/flapped up to the board to perch.  Now there’s a photo op!

Then the osprey outdid himself by perching one-legged.  I don’t know how birds can balance so well when they stand on just one leg!  I can remember couple years ago when I saw Olivia perched on one leg for the first time, I thought she had lost it and was heartbroken & worried!  I had a really good laugh when she repositioned and dropped down her other leg. 🙂

The following are random photos of osprey in flight in no particular order.

The next two photos are not very good but it’s always interesting to see an osprey attack a bald eagle who wandered through the osprey’s ‘territory’.  The eagle defended himself as he quickly exited the area with the osprey in pursuit.

There’s been little time for boating but I did get couple chances to photograph a few area osprey nests to share.  You can see, as long as the home can be over and very near water, an osprey will build a nest anywhere they think they can.  In our area, channel markers are definitely a favorite but the osprey aren’t too picky!

Unfortunately, sometimes osprey will attempt at building a nest on a channel marker with no platform base as in these next photos of the pair on Channel Marker 7 in the Kent Narrows.  Definitely a tough situation with no room for growing chicks to expand.  😦   Fingers crossed, they can make it to fledging.

But it is possible as seen in the well-established nests in the next two photos.

Finally, I loved this shot of an osprey gazing off in to the sunset.

Sorry for the osprey overload, I’ll wrap this up before I post more!  As you can see, osprey are a favorite of mine and I find it hard to limit the number of photos, so sorry about that!  🙂  As always, thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it!