I Was At Sterling Lake In Lake County Illinois This Morning. An Osprey Came Over And After Three Attempsts Finally Caught A Fish. Unfortuneately I Was Unable To Get A Picture Of Him Diving Into The Water, But He Was Spectacular.
It sort of brings to mind what happened in the middle of June. I was just walking across a little car park in the south of the Isle of Man when a family party of choughs flew overhead. I stood there and watched them go round the corner before continuing to my car. Opening the door, I heard someone in the next car saying in a loud voice, "You'd think that people would have better things to do than standing there looking at crows!" I leaned over and said that they were not any old crows, but Manx choughs, at which they said, "Oh, we didn't know, where did they go?" By that time, the birds were out of sight!Macswede said:Ospreys are fairly common here in Sweden but I don't think I'll ever lose the thrill of seeing one.
I remember last August my girlfriend and I went shopping at a nearby shopping centre not far from the centre of Stockholm. There's a small lake next to it and I half-jokingly suggested that we walk round it just in case there were any interesting birds. We saw nothing out of the ordinary but when we had almost walked right round the lake an osprey suddenly appeared and started fishing.
I suspect it was a young bird though I have no photographs to prove that. It didn't catch any fish but it came very close and seemed totally unperturbed by all the joggers and the groups of alcoholics gathered round the park benches and the families out for a walk and the children bathing. The weird thing was that I saw no sign at all that anybody else even noticed the presence of this magnificent bird. I mean they're not that common - at least not that near to the city.
At any rate, we came back the following day and it appeared again. Shame I didn't have my FZ20 at the time or I could have taken some great pictures.
Kentbloke said:Hi Macswede, agree that the public today seem 'under-awed' by such sights - I blame TV! I remember in the 1960's, a Golden Eagle(Goldie) escaped from the London Zoo and made front page news in the national press. Can't imagine that happening these days?
ldsmith said:Here in the U.S. Osprey's are fairly common. I was hiking in Yellowstone National Park in August when I saw an Osprey fishing. Thought it would be a good test of my new Canon 350d and 75-300 MM is lens so I began shooting.
Here is the best of the pictures.
ldsmith said:Here in the U.S. Osprey's are fairly common. I was hiking in Yellowstone National Park in August when I saw an Osprey fishing. Thought it would be a good test of my new Canon 350d and 75-300 MM is lens so I began shooting.
Here is the best of the pictures.