Uncommon Visitor

Common loons are a winter visitor to the area, but are usually back in the northern latitudes by this time of year.  I saw this male in breeding plumage a couple of days ago on the river.  He was surprisingly bold and not shy like you might think.  I watched him fish for over an hour very close to where I stood, then watched it spend the next hour preening and napping.  He was an impressive fisherman.  I'll post a couple more photos over the next few days...

Easy Meal?

Wave action was giving enough "life" to a dead fish (the white area behind the talons) that the osprey made a very slow approach so it could inspect it.  Once it realized the fish was dead, it rejected it and flew away.  This was the split second after passing the fish when it still wasn't completely convinced.  The talons are impressive!

I'll Get My Own

How amazing is that?  In the midst of chasing the osprey with it's fish, the eagle also was able to keep an eye on the river and break off the chase to capture it's own.  Now that's multitasking!

Breaking Off the Chase

In the midst of chasing the osprey around the marsh, the eagle suddenly pulled up and allowed the osprey to fly off with it's catch.  Filming a event like this is a little different than just observing the behavior.  As a photographer, priority has to be given to concentration on camera settings, focus, when to shoot, and the like.  If you become too engrossed in the action, you won't shoot anything.  So, it wasn't immediately apparent why the eagle broke off the chase.  That is a story for tomorrow...

The Chase

My internet was down since Saturday, thus no posts.  Here is another shot in the same series.  Osprey fairly often do drop the fish in these situations, but it isn't because they get rattled by the eagle.  They are able to out-manuever them quite easily.  The fish are slippery and keeping a grip for an extended period is not all that easy.  Dropping a fish is a lose-lose situation since I have never seen either bird able to recover one - even when it was dropped over land instead of water.

Kleptoparasitism

A form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food from another that has done the work of catching.  The seagull silhouette image a few days ago was another instance of kleptoparasitism.  It is probably one of the reasons why Benjamin Franklin thought the wild turkey would make a better national symbol.

This photo allows a good comparison of the difference in wingspan between osprey and eagles.  In this particular instance, the eagle chased the osprey all over creation until something surprising occurred - which I'll post in the next day or two.

Its Impossible

Many waterfowl need to be able to run across the surface of the water to become airborne.  Birds like the cormorant have nice wide webbed feet to aid them in takeoffs.  The great blue heron, on the other hand, has three toes with no webbing and huge wings that have to lift an half-submerged body straight up out of the water.  Obviously, its physically impossible.