Fish Eagle

While I'm posting some old pictures that have been laying around for a while, here are a couple of ospreys I shot last month out at Robinson Preserve. I wish I could get this close to a few eagles and get some shots. No offense to these guys, they're beautiful and all, but I'd love to get close-up shots like these of some eagles on the wing.

Go Away!

This osprey was a little bit upset that I interrupted his seafood dinner. Sorry, sir.

On The Wing

Here's a more common site around these parts, something I see a lot more often than that alleged frigate bird I just showed you. This is your run-of-the-mill osprey, the top of the food chain in much of their water-front habitat. I keep hoping to get more shots of these guys diving in and pulling a fish out of the water, but I've only gotten so lucky that one time.

But they do take nice pictures, even when they don't have mullet in their talons.

I wish he'd been a little closer, and I wouldn't have had to crop these pictures quite so much, but beggars can't be choosers.

Do Not Look Directly Down Barrel

I photographed this osprey while I was out shooting tonight. You wouldn't want to meet this guy in a dark alley. Well, I guess he's not all that mean, unless you happen to be a fish. If you're a fish, he's gonna tear you fin from fin.

Something About Seaside Weddings

Same as at a beach wedding I went to last year, an osprey flew by in the middle of the ceremony at the wedding I attended Saturday night. So amid all the pictures I have of the couple saying their vows and what not, there are half a dozen shots of this osprey flying high overhead. Heaven forbid I ever get married anywhere near a body of water.

Osprey Alert

So I went out to City Island this evening to try and shoot the sunset. Probably not the best place to shoot the sunset, since the water access there faces east, but I was on auto-pilot. As I drove in (and wondered what all the traffic was about. Turned out there was a boat show...), I saw the osprey above just chilling out in a tree where I thought I could get a good shot. So I parked the car, put a long lens on the camera and hiked back. I squeezed off a couple shots, then started walking to see if I could find a better angle. Then I heard the cries of another osprey in the air.

I looked up and saw this bird headed straight towards me. I got a couple of decent pictures.

Then he started spiraling around overhead, catching the sun on each turn, so I got lots of good pictures like this.

But the most amazing, or interesting, or noteworthy picture may be this one. If you look close (click on the picture and it should open up much larger), you'll see white squiggles and drops trailing out behind the osprey. Yes, that's right, he's pooping. And no, I did not get hit. Thank goodness. But I did get the shot!

One More Bald Eagle

Hard to believe but I spotted one more rare bird while in Titusville for the shuttle launch. There were dozens of ospreys around while I was shooting, and I'd pretty much been ignoring them. But something caught my eye about one that just didn't look right, and sure enough, it turned out to be a bald eagle. He was pretty much out of range, but I still squeezed off a couple of blurry shots. Don't judge me too harshly on them, I was just happy to see a bald eagle.


What I didn't expect after spotting the eagle was to see an osprey start giving him a hard time. Twice he came after the eagle in mid-air, and twice the eagle did some incredible flying to show the osprey who was boss. It's a little tough to see in these photos, but that's the osprey on top and the eagle on bottom, flying upside down to go after the osprey with his talons. I kept hoping he'd fly back by, but I never saw him again after this pass.

Why I'm Not A Wedding Photographer

Plenty of people have asked me to shoot weddings and other events for them, and I've always politely declined. Part of the reason is that I think I don't take good people pictures. I don't have any real experience with using the flash and getting good flesh tones and all that jazz. The other reason is my lack of concentration on the task at hand. As I mentioned a second ago, I shot pictures at a wedding this evening, and right about the part where they read their hand-written vows, I spot this osprey flying along the water's edge looking for dinner. So what did I get a picture of? The vows? No. The osprey? Yes. Of course. Why ask a silly question?

Sunset Tonight

Right before the sun finally went down, I found a pair of ospreys working on their nest. They were building it atop a remnant of the old fort that used to occupy the site, hence the name Ft. DeSoto. One of the birds would fly away every few minutes, circle around until he spotted a good piece of nest material, grab it, then bring it back to the nest. They'd both spend some time working it into the intricate design, then the cycle would repeat. The actual sunset is below. To the left of the sun is a large freighter that had passed by about half an hour earlier. I couldn't see it when I took the picture, since I was pretty much looking into the sun, so I was surprised when it showed up in the picture. I'm thinking that both of these pictures are early contenders for calendar shots next year.

Awesome Osprey

I went up to Ft DeSoto this afternoon, and wound up shooting some ospreys. I must have shot four or five hundred pictures, but this was only about the third one, and I'm so impressed that I'm going to go ahead and post it. Just look at him, frozen in mid-air like that, staring right at the camera. What a great shot!