An Osprey, A Fish And A Thieving Magpie

Yesterday Mia and I returned from a three day camping and photo trip to Flaming Gorge.  We had great weather for most of our time there and as usual the scenery and ambience were awesome.  At an elevation over 6000′ many of the birds that we usually see there apparently haven’t arrived yet but we spent some quality time with a pair of nesting Osprey – a species that I’ve had little luck with in the past.

 

 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

This pole with all the attached ugly hardware was within a few feet of the nesting platform and early one morning this Osprey landed on the pole with a freshly caught fish.  At first I figured that this bird would deliver the fish to its mate on the nest (I have a lot to learn about this species) but it didn’t.  It’s intention was to eat the fish itself but as you’ll see, those plans were delayed by an interloper.

 

 

It didn’t take long for this Black-billed Magpie to show up and torment the rightful owner of the fish.  This Osprey removed and dropped the intestines in pieces and it seemed obvious to me that the magpie had learned that particular feeding pattern and came looking for  tidbits that had landed on the wires below the Osprey.  Here you can see one of those bits in the beak of the magpie that it had picked off of the metal above its head.   So far the Osprey doesn’t seem too concerned.

When the magpie showed up I removed my teleconverter and started shooting vertically (which wasn’t easy from inside my pickup through the window).   For this image and all of the following ones the techs are: 1/2000 to 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 

 

 

As soon as it swallowed the first tidbit it began looking for more.  If you look carefully you can see some intestine hanging down over the side of the post and I believe that’s what the magpie has its eye on in this image.

 

 

So the magpie decided to make an attempt at pilfering the hanging piece of gut but the Osprey didn’t take kindly to that notion.

 

 

The magpie hovered just out of range for a few seconds…

 

 

but the fierce response of the Osprey…

 

 

caused it to put off the attempt.

 

 

But the magpie still wasn’t ready to give up completely.  Here you can see it seeming to plan its next maneuver.

 

 

It tries again but in the end doesn’t dare risk getting close…

 

 

and once again settles on the post at a safe distance.

 

 

I’m not really sure what’s going on in this last shot but the way the Osprey is holding the fish out over the pole makes me smile because it almost looks like it’s taunting the magpie – daring it to come in closer and see what happens if it does.

I missed one entire series of shots when the magpie flew up close to the Osprey because I lost focus shooting vertically in my awkward position in the pickup.  I’m curious about what I missed.