Well, I’m finally back. I have been culling my photos for my blog, website and a show this fall. I am doing the blog first. Perhaps to give you an idea of how many photos I have to sift through you will understand the long gap in time between postings. On a given date while I watched the offspring grow, I took about 200 – 300 photographs. Thank heavens for digital. With my great lens ( 600mm) it was hard to fail!
I started to follow the family when the young were large enough to see clearly in the nest. Prior to that time, they are hidden from view by the branches and their parents.
The little ones look a little odd with their black band on the eyes and the little feathers of varying colours. But when you look at the nest, they blend in perfectly. Quite often I would only see one for the first few minutes of watching.
Two things I really wanted to capture this year were the little ones being fed and a parent arriving with a fish. And I succeeded in spades! I learned a lot about osprey behaviour through simple observation. So what I report in these blogs is what I deduced from watching them.
First, it appears that the mother is the key feeder of the two parents. The male brings in the fish and then the mother grabs it – after much vocalization – and rips it up, feeding one bite at a time to the babies.
The father doesn’t stay long after bringing the fish in. and doesn’t seem to get much thanks for his efforts. Unless what I took for nagging was actually her singing his praises.
During the first day of monitoring them, when Dad came back, they posed for a family portrait, which will conclude this post. Lots more to come.
See you soon!
Categories: birds, Osprey, Photography
Lardeau Valley Time 
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