Osprey - Balbuzard pêcheur
My workload has been very high since the spring, absurdly high frankly, and being outdoors with a camera is part of what balances my life. But the higher the workload the more infrequent (and shorter in duration) my trips into the woods or along the water.
So special moments are all the more valuable, and spending time with this Osprey was a super fun way to spend an hour on the River.
Mud Lake is immediately south of the Ottawa River, and so a few hours can easily be spent in a variety of habitats: shoreline, lake, woods, meadows, etc. And immediately north of Mud Lake there is a small land mass in the River, creating a kind slower, shallower side channel. This is a favourite place for ducks in the winter, as the moving water stays open from ice and provides good access to crustaceans and other delights.
It is also a favourite place for Osprey, and to a lesser extent Bald Eagles. The Osprey hunt fish in the channel, and routinely swoop down to pull something out of the water.
I found this bird at about 8:30 in the morning. It had found a perch from which it was staring at the water, stretching, preening, and doing everything but hit the water. I was okay with that. The height of the perch and its location on the channel meant I could very very close in height and a reasonable distance away. The sun was shining, it was warm, and a morning of birding around the Lake was waiting for me. Instead I spent a half of the morning watching and photographing this bird.
The Osprey has a broken primary feather. I checked with my friend Paul who stressed that this was not a big deal and that it would grow back. The image is cropped to remove the (lovely but distracting) mixed foliage.
Osprey - Balbuzard pêcheur
My workload has been very high since the spring, absurdly high frankly, and being outdoors with a camera is part of what balances my life. But the higher the workload the more infrequent (and shorter in duration) my trips into the woods or along the water.
So special moments are all the more valuable, and spending time with this Osprey was a super fun way to spend an hour on the River.
Mud Lake is immediately south of the Ottawa River, and so a few hours can easily be spent in a variety of habitats: shoreline, lake, woods, meadows, etc. And immediately north of Mud Lake there is a small land mass in the River, creating a kind slower, shallower side channel. This is a favourite place for ducks in the winter, as the moving water stays open from ice and provides good access to crustaceans and other delights.
It is also a favourite place for Osprey, and to a lesser extent Bald Eagles. The Osprey hunt fish in the channel, and routinely swoop down to pull something out of the water.
I found this bird at about 8:30 in the morning. It had found a perch from which it was staring at the water, stretching, preening, and doing everything but hit the water. I was okay with that. The height of the perch and its location on the channel meant I could very very close in height and a reasonable distance away. The sun was shining, it was warm, and a morning of birding around the Lake was waiting for me. Instead I spent a half of the morning watching and photographing this bird.
The Osprey has a broken primary feather. I checked with my friend Paul who stressed that this was not a big deal and that it would grow back. The image is cropped to remove the (lovely but distracting) mixed foliage.