Each year when the ospreys return to Jordan Lake, territory disputes occur.
The east side of the First Nest Cove belongs, more or less, to the ospreys.
The west side of the cove, more or less, belongs to the bald eagles.
The osprey female initiated this encounter when Petruchio crossed the “line”.
Ultimately Petruchio pushed the osprey back east of the line and for the moment quiet reigned.
I gotta admit I admired the spunk of the much smaller osprey!
Ospreys go south for the winter, some go all the way to South America.
The adults leave first in the fall and then the fledgling females.
The young male ospreys are the last to leave the lake.
I caught this fledgling, hatched this year, fishing at the lake this morning.
With the freeze projected for tonight he may too be gone tomorrow.
Note his still orange fledgling eye and the white edging to his flight feathers – marks of a youngster.
I had leaned way back in my chair to try to photograph a tiny brown-headed nuthatch.
Don’t you know, into my viewfinder came this male fledgling osprey.
He was so close that I didn’t get all of his wings.
The smudge to the right of the bird is the tree that I was leaning around.
The youngster bounced to a landing, balanced for a moment and then left to look for fish.
Thought y’all might enjoy the other end of the fledgling osprey’s flight.
After being puzzled by watching us watching her,
the youngster took off to practice her new skills.
The leap into the open space surrounding the nest is one step.
The next is to safely stick a landing.
This female osprey fledgling seemed as intent on watching my friends and I
as she was in making sure her feet were going to meet the branch at the right angle.
And, yes, she made a great landing!
Birds have a built-in lens protector that flicks across their eyes.
This third eyelid is called a nictitating membrane.
It allows the bird to still see while its eyes have extra protection.
You can see the translucency as the nictitating membrane slides across the osprey’s eye.
doc ellen's journey 