Osprey on the River Camel Aug/Sept 2024

  

About a month ago a juvenile Osprey arrived near Wadebridge and started to hangout near Target pool, visible from the Camel Trail  1 mile marker just beyond Pendavey bridge on the Wadebridge - Bodmin section of the disused railway line that is now a major tourist attraction.
The bird looked to be roosting in the tall oaks above the river but having watched it intently recently I think it's roosting elsewhere and only flying in at first light to perch up and preen.
Because a similar Osprey used the same trees last autumn it was automatically assumed it was the same bird but looking at the plumage it's almost certainly 2 different juvenile birds.
Last years bird would normally have stayed in its winter quarters in West Africa for at least the first year and sometimes 2 years.

So these trees and the undisturbed bit of the river must prove attractive to Ospreys on their Southerly migration. There's no doubt that there is plenty of food as its been seen taking mullet regularly and there have been many hundred fish in that short section of River during late summer although numbers have dropped off rapidly in the past week despite huge Equinox spring tides.

I've spent many hours in a small canvas hide in various places including the  middle of  blackthorn copse with my cameras but still failed to get any shots of it with fish, although others have been luckier in that respect.
In order to prevent any disturbance I approached my hide in darkness, often starting at 5am, and never left until the bird had flown off. It's not in my interest to disturb it as obviously I won't get any views or photographs!
By sitting and watching this bird for long periods of time I was privileged to record lots of intimate behaviour, especially so when it was preening or falling asleep on the perch with its eyes gradually closing and the third eyelids passing across the eyes.

One of the funniest moments was after it had had a failed dive & it flew to it's favourite dead elm but instead of landing on the central trunk it tried to land on a dead branch at speed.
The branch snapped off at the node with the trunk and both Osprey and branch went tumbling through the air with a loud crack!
That was enough for the bird, it flew off looking most indignant or maybe embarrassed and I never saw it again that morning.
Here is a selection of photographs I've taken , sometimes many in one session but also sometimes none at all after 4 cold and dark hours on the riverbank.
We do have to suffer for our art...... but the rewards are fantastic,  just watching these iconic birds at close quarters is amazing.

As an aside there are plans to build an Osprey nesting platform in the near vicinity very soon using the cut off electricity poles by the river... watch this space!

Bit of a sh*t shot ha!

Osprey in Cornwall. 20th September 2022.

 

After making a third early morning visit to this pool on a tributary of the River Fal it was "3rd time lucky" as this juvenile osprey paid a visit and had 3 unsuccessful dives for fish. 

At neap tide I don't think there were many large Grey Mullet available for it to feed on. The sluice lets water in from the river on a good tide but I tend to wonder if the Osprey has eliminated all of the larger fish available.

However it was exciting to watch this iconic bird as it hunted from the high trees on the pool perimeter.

Several friends and indeed new acquaintances waited silently on the footpath with baited breath and fingers poised on camera shutter buttons.

Each time it twitched there was the sound of shutters being fired and I hold my hand up to having one of the loudest! One of the advantages of the move toward mirrorless cameras is the benefit of silent shutters!

Here are a few images from today.... I came away exhilarated to have watched this bird at close quarters but a wee bit despondent that I didn't get the amount of good images that I expected.

Obviously more practice needed!

Osprey in the rain. Cornwall 13th September 2022.

 

It's got to be a good sign that Ospreys are doing well in Britain & indeed farther to the North and East as Cornwall seems to be getting a regular stop-off for more and more of these iconic birds every year.

Today was one of the worst days for weather this summer, dull and wet but humid. 

After a fabulous summer it doesn't seem right to moan about a bit of rain but when it stops you enjoying such a beautiful bird than who can blame me for feeling hard done by!

That aside I do think the rain gives the photos a bit of atmosphere! 

We were lucky enough to watch 4 dives from this individual of which 3 produced successful fish catches. Only small fish but that was good for me as it then came back to feed much quicker than if it had caught a large fish.

The osprey was regularly mobbed by corvids, crows and jackdaws, and they drove him away from the lake on a few occasions.

Hopefully he will stay around for a few more days so I can get down there again in a bit better weather.

Here are a few images from this morning....

Mobbed by corvids

Ospreys, Pine Island, Florida, 13.4.2015

A few of the osprey images I took this morning at the Northern end of Pine Island on the Gulf coast of Florida.

There were 3 nests all within 200 yards of each other, and that was just the ones we could see!

It's always amazing how ospreys are so rare in the UK but are very numerous in many other parts of the world.

These are just rough edits done from my sun lounger so apologies if they're not my finest finished items!