Nesting Osprey Of Flaming Gorge

There’s lots of great Osprey photos “out there” but sadly none of them are mine.  I’ve tried with this species time and again and something has always gone wrong – crappy perches, poor light, couldn’t get close and most often I couldn’t even find the birds.  But recently I finally got some shots of them I like.

As I mentioned in an earlier post Mia and I spent three days at Flaming Gorge this week.  I was delighted to find a nesting pair of Osprey as I’ve had very little luck with this species in the past.  The nest was on a nesting platform right next to a boat-launching ramp so the birds were used to human traffic and went about their normal routine even with vehicles, boats and fishermen in the vicinity.  There were no chicks yet but they were obviously incubating eggs.

 

 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

One bird of the pair was always on the nest of course but occasionally the other Osprey would fly by very close and then immediately leave again – it seemed to me that it was “just checking up” to make sure that everything was ok at the nest.  I believe this bird is the male.  Sexing Osprey can be tricky but on average males have fewer (if any) dark markings on chin, breast and sides of neck than do females.  You’ll see what I think is the female of the pair a couple of images later.

 

 

 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 Another shot of the male in flight.

 

 

 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 After they would exchange places on the nest the female (notice the dark marking on the neck/breast) would also do the occasional close fly-by just to check up on her mate and the nest.

 

 

 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 Here the male is bringing a small fish to the nest.  I’ve included two pre-landing poses – one with wings forward…

 

 

 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

and one with the wings back.

 

 

 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

The male did something I didn’t expect here.  We had seen the female bring a fish in to the vicinity of the nest, land on a nearby pole and then eat it herself but hadn’t seen either bird deliver a fish to its mate on the nest.  But it looked like that was exactly the intent of the male on this trip because he landed on the nest with the fish.  But only for a few seconds – in fact he didn’t even completely fold his wings before he took off again and flew to a far away pole to presumably eat the fish.  In this shot he’s taking off after only a second or two on the nest.  It almost seemed like a “touch and go” landing that human pilots practice.  I like the “bewildered” look on the face of the female…

 

 

 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

Some of the shots I liked were obvious landing shots where I didn’t much appreciate the perch the bird was approaching (usually an unnatural wooden post on the nesting platform) so I took the liberty of cloning out a bit of the post if it showed in the frame, as it did here.

 

 

 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 But other times I was able to catch one of the birds landing on the nest so I didn’t have to clone anything (I hate cloning stuff out).

 

 

 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4

From one of our shooting positions we were able to get mountains in the background.  It makes for a more contrasty image so the white exposure is tricky but I’m still pleased with these shots because most images I see of this species near the nest have only sky backgrounds.  I like this effect for a change.  Here the female is coming in to relieve the male on the nest.

 

 

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4

 Almost the same shot as the previous image but I like the concentration on landing, the position of the feet and the better light on the face of the male.

 

 

I couldn’t resist including this image to show you one of the reasons Mia and I are so enchanted with “The Gorge”.  Even when there aren’t a lot of birds (as on this trip) the visual splendors go a long ways in making up for it.  We camp in a favorite primitive camp site and this is what we wake up to.  I took this shot just a few minutes before some of the images I’ve included here.

What a place!

Ron

Postscript: The only downside to this particular trip was that I developed a “hot tooth” on the third day so I had to put my tail between my legs and head for home earlier than planned (a drive I won’t forget).  The next day I had a root canal, from which I’m still recovering.  My dentist took me in on an emergency basis and saved my bacon – for which I’ll be forever grateful.  Thank you Dr. O’brien!  And Mia, for helping me to get through it.