Thursday, March 31, 2011

Osprey at Honeymoon Island - Skywatch Friday






I remember the first time I saw an osprey. My dad died in the spring of 2001 and my mom decided she wanted to move to a retirement community rather than live alone. She was a very sociable person. She moved into this great apartment on the 4th floor and right across the driveway was an osprey nest! My sisters and I stood on the balcony asking ourselves "What is that bird?" I remembered that we had packed an old waterbird book that my dad had bought years ago at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. We dug that out and flipped through the pages. There it was, an osprey. Or fish hawk as it also know. It's a type of hawk that catches fish with it's talons. The ospreys had babies on the nest, although we could barely see them. We spent that week watching that nest with a pair of old binoculars. Later the next year I moved down here with hubby and at some point we noticed all of the osprey that would hang out on the bridges eating fish. It became a habit of mine to count the number of osprey on the bridge on the way home from work. Several summers ago I got up to 22 on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. This past summer I think I only hit 12. 

One of the best places to see them is at Honeymoon Island. There's a lot of nesting going on but I don't think there are any babies yet. There are tons of osprey on the trail flying around and eating. I saw all of the above while heading to the end of the trail to check on the eagle's nest. I'm going to try and check back in another month to see if I can catch some baby osprey.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/




13 comments:

  1. great shots!!! I am back again hope to see you around.

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  2. Awesome pictures. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy the sight of Osprey's flying in the wild back home in Scotland and it is a beautiful sight indeed.

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  3. Beautiful pictures of a remarkable bird! :)

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  4. that is really great shots of the Osprey. They come here too, but I have never seen any nest. You are lucky.

    You seem t olike birds, I hae 2 birdblogs if you like to check them out.

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  5. Absolutely spectacular! This is my first stop on Skywatch Friday and I am sure that it will probably be my favorite post of the day. Well done.

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  6. What beautiful shots! I am amazed at all the great photography on this blog!
    Shirley

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  7. ...fantastic shots of the osprey. I just spent a week in Florida (Captiva), and we had an osprey nest outside our porch too. I loved watching those birds!

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  8. You have captured some splendid moments of this magnificent bird,truly outstanding!

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  9. Outstanding shots--really excellent. I'll check back to see more of your work often. Mickie :)

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  10. Amazing shots! Just spent sometime visiting your blog and enjoying all your pictures!
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Debbie's Travels

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  11. what a handsome fella! terrific capture most especially the third photo :)

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  12. You have some awesome pictures. What kind of camera/lens do you use? I enjoy getting ideas for photo locations from your posts!

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  13. Incredible photos as always! At long last "our" ospreys have returned to the North Fork of Long Island, the surest sign of spring that exists here, and yes, it snowed again today, the first of April... sheeesh!

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