Sharon's Iconic Travel Photography Blog

Sticks and Fish

I still have not seen a baby osprey’s head yet peeking over the nest. The male is bringing in more sticks and fish to the nest.

According to All About Birds the incubation period for the eggs is between 36-42 days. We have experienced some very windy days, so more sticks may be for repairs due to weather.

It is said the females are the ones who primarily incubate the eggs while the males bring in the fish for the female. They say the male will watch the nest when the female goes out to wash. I have see her do short circle flights where it appears she is stretching her wings. Hopefully soon we will see the young osprey. If you are in the US have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Intruder and Pursuit

I thought two adults were already in the nest I was watching today. People kept stopping to talk and ask questions, so maybe I missed the mate leaving. However, this adult coming to the nest was an intruder, probably from the other nest that was within sight.

From the pictures you can see the one osprey in the nest looks quite perturbed. The other adult osprey was laying low in the nest. The intruder actually landed on the nest for a few seconds.

Intruder and Pursuit- Both do not look happy

Then one of the adults from the nest went in hot pursuit. Luckily for me some of the action was fairly close, and I was able to capture some shots.

The adult from the nest chased him in circles in front of me. Meanwhile the mate in the nest was loudly protesting, or were they cheering their mate on?

Although it appears they got fairly close at some points, it does not looks like from any of my images that any blood was shed. Not sure if they even actually touched each other.

Eventually they flew farther away over land chasing each other in the direction of another body of water. I thought these two nests were getting along, but there was drama today. I hope your week is drama free.

Osprey Bridge Fly-By

I finally got to go down to view this nest in the morning. It was a sunny day with little clouds. Early morning in those conditions can make for some good light.

Did not see him catch a fish, but had some nice fly-by shots.

As the temperatures get warmer, get out and enjoy the weather before it gets too hot. Have a great Tuesday!

Osprey DIY Repairs

The is the first morning I made it to this location. I usually stop by this spot on the Hudson River on my way home from work. I am usually facing the sun at those times when I face the nest. In the morning the sun is behind you. I was really hoping to get a shot in good light of an osprey bringing in a fish. In the 4 hours I was there no fish were brought in. I did see a stick brought in multiple times. I guess they were doing DIY (Do it yourself) nest repair.

Both of the sticks I am showing they picked up floating in the river. We have experienced a lot of rain lately and some flooding. There is a lot of debris in the river.

Osprey DIY Repairs – Bringing in a floating stick or vine from the river

I like the above picture because it appears he is looking right at me. You can see the head of the mate appearing just above the nest on the right side. The nest is deep and so far I am not seeing the heads of any young osprey, so I have to assume they have not hatched yet. I hope you had a great Mother’s Day if you live in the U.S. Have a great week.

Fish Crow on the Pier

Merlin identifies this as a fish crow. It landed behind me on the pier. It grabbed something small from the deck of the pier. I am thinking it may have been part of a left over fish. Men have been catching stripers from that spot. Otherwise, it could have been a spot of food it cached. They are know to cache extra food in grass and crevices among other spots.

I was lucky enough to see this bird up close. Fish crows can be found along the east coast and up the Hudson River Valley all year in areas around beaches, marshes, estuaries, lakes, and rivers. We are in its year round range.

They are omnivores. They will eat eggs and young of other birds, water creatures such as crabs and turtle eggs that they dig up. They also harass and steal food from crows, gulls, ospreys, etc. I made a previous post about a crow chasing an osprey who was carrying a fish. Have a great Sunday!

Tree Swallow May

Kudos to the photographers who can get good shots of this bird in flight. They move around too erratic for me. Luckily this landed close enough to me to get a shot or two off. It was a dark day and this was lightened a bit.

Have a great weekend!

Gimme!

Poor osprey! The eagles chase him to steal the fish. The fish crows chase him. He gets no respect.

He was on his way back to the nest with a partially eaten fish.

When low and behold a crow started chasing him.

The chase went on for quite. distance. The crow never had contact with the osprey. Maybe he thought better of it.

Gimme! The head of the mother is just visible in the nest.

The osprey made it back to the nest. He is better at bringing a fish over to the nest. If she wants a piece she bites off one, and he flies to a nearby spot to finish it off. Looks like this one was already partially eaten before he stopped by the nest. Have a Happy Thursday!

Thursday’s Catch

After missing out on the delivery of another fish due to the unexpected direction from which the parent came, I waited around and within maybe 30 minutes or so after the dad went out again he snagged another.

This time he came from the direction I expected him to. How nice of him. It is hard to get pictures of the fish coming in and delivery in the nest. The above picture I believe is the mother with one eaglet clearly visible and two heads down low closer to the mother. This nest has three eaglets that they appear to be doing a good job taking care of. The last two years this nest has lost an eaglet each year.

Thursday’s Catch – another small orange fish

By the time this photo was taken it was close to sunset. I had to lighten it a bit. Luckily, he flew right towards me and over my head. Another orangey fish. This one appears small. Once again it looks like dad could not help himself. He may have eaten part of it. Have a great weekend!

No, You Can’t Have Some!

Due to some trees obstructing my view, I did not see the osprey dive into the water to get this fish. However, I saw an encounter between the osprey and a crow.

The osprey went from catching the fish to one of its favourite perching trees.

Shortly thereafter, a crow came and landed on the same tree very close to the osprey. The osprey then looked in my direction. It looks like the osprey is peeved while the crow is trying to plead for a scrap. I am wondering if the osprey is thinking can you believe this? When I entered this image to identify the crow, Merlin only suggests a fish crow for it.

The crow gave up and flew off to sit on the rocks nearby and the osprey ate probably more than half of the fish.

Then off it flew towards the nest with the leftovers. Here’s hoping it shared with it’s mate. Happy Friday!

Osprey With a Fish

I finally saw the osprey go down to get a fish. Unfortunately, the pictures of him going in the water and coming out did not come out well because that happened behind a little scraggily bush on the other side of a very tiny island. These, however, came out okay.

It actually caught the fish right next to the shore. It started carrying it in the direction of the nest.

At this point I think it spotted another fish under the water and looked down for a while when flying. It did not appear to be looking at the fish it was carrying. When taking these shots it looked like he was going for a second catch on one run.

He took this fish to his perching spot near the nest and ate the whole thing himself. He did not share with his mate in the nest. These were taken at quite a distance with a zoom lens and are heavily cropped. Have a happy Wednesday!

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