osprey fishing

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By migratory osprey

This adult male osprey has been fishing at Jordan Lake the last 3 days. I think he is a migrant.
Our adult ospreys left about 4 weeks ago and only a few of our osprey fledglings and immatures are still here.
I don’t recognize the markings on this osprey.
I have watched him madly fishing the last 3 days – like a parent osprey with chicks would be fishing.
He is late for South America and is eating for the sustenance to finish the trip.
Note the silvery fish about 2 feet in front of his right foot.
And, the orange patches are the leaves flying past as I followed his track through the autumn trees.

migratory osprey

By part 2, Ace missed the Fish

Ace’s body was halfway into the water when he realized the danger.
He began pulling up hard, fighting for altitude.
His body swung to his left and he got the left wing tip caught in the water.

Going from the bottom left of the photo:
The smaller spreading circular splash shows his trajectory as he almost got his body cleared of the river.
The next curve of bubbles shows where his left wing tapped the water and he began a half arc.
Finally he got straightened out and his body fully free of the river. Oh, my.

WALK6836 Jul 13 2015 @ 09-10-11 Haw River Ace fishing lure part 2

By twister

Ospreys frequently go completely under water when diving after fish.
This leaves the bird with a lot of very heavy water as excess weight on its body.
They solve the weight problem by shedding the water.
Like a dog, they start at the beak and do a full body, very vigorous, twisting shake back to the tail.
I caught this osprey at the point of the shake reaching his midsection; his beak almost back to its normal position.

WALK2216 May 30 2015 @ 07-33-59 Ebenezer Osprey shake