osprey

Tag

By JL Neighborhood 4 photos August 26, 2017
The cooler air has a lot of birds out and about.
 
This fledgling osprey has a nice sized fish dangling below her wing and her “rivets” are glowing.
 
 
A spectacular osprey launch.
 
 
Accipiters can be tricky to identify.
I believe this is an immature Cooper’s hawk who zipped past me and into the far pine trees.
 
 
It is always a little disconcerting to see long legged birds way up in trees.
However, they often do just that!
But I didn’t let that stop me from photographing this great egret.
 

By JL Neighborhood, 5 photos 8/23/2017

In between watching eclipses and aerobatic bald eagles, I have kept my eye on other interesting critters …
This is father osprey plowing into the lake for a fish.


A white-tailed buck very calmly glanced my way and then went back to browsing.


Something must have tickled this great blue heron’s toes – he sure made a spectacular leap and didn’t take flight!

It was great fun watching the pileated woodpecker stop his hammering just long enough for me to get his portrait.


The three brassy little skipper butterflies were sharing a button bush blossom.

By Uh, oh, wrong nest in the JL Neighborhood 08/07/2017
The osprey fledgling wandered into the wrong territory.
The mother osprey of the nest he tried to get to took exception to his visit.
Firmly, but without any damage to the youngster,
the adult osprey escorted the juvenile away from her nest.
Notes:  the juvenile is in the lead;
 he is much smaller, because he is a male – not because he is younger
when you can see their backs, the youngster has a white line that bisects his wings.
I call these white spots “rivets”.  They are camouflage spots at the end of his feathers.

By Images

The ospreys are fledging at Jordan Lake – taking their first flights.

Male osprey fledgling. Note his orange eye. Adults have a golden eye.


This is a female osprey fledgling. Her dark feathered “brooch” marks her gender.


A little easier to see her dark neck patch.


By far the easiest way to tell that these ospreys are fledglings are by the white “rivets” on their feathers.


The “rivets” are white dots at the ends of their feathers and will wear off as they age.

By JL Neighborhood 6 photos July 31, 2017

Big birds, little birds, plain brown or black birds and one of startling color!

4-year-old bald eagle with a small fish for a pre-brunch appetizer!


The tiny brown-headed nuthatch has snagged one of her favorite sources of protein:

a spider from the web below her.


This brilliantly yellow bird is a prothonotary warbler.

They come for the summer nesting season.


A northern rough-winged swallow:

a tiny speed demon that loves to consume flying insects such as mosquitos.


There is WAY more branch here than osprey!

I would have loved to have been able to see him get it into his nest.


Closeup of a beautiful black vulture.

I really appreciate their contributions to the cleanup around the lake.