Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) photo by Larry Jordan
It’s been really slow birding around here of late, with temperatures hovering around the 100 degree mark (that’s 38 Celsius) for the last four weeks. So I’ve been perusing my photos for several reasons and whenever I do that, I always find images that I forgot I had. Click on photos for full sized images.
Back in May, I spent a beautiful day at the Heron Festival at Clear Lake, sponsored by the Redbud Audubon Society. It is a wonderful event with lots of activities for all ages.
I was able to observe some fascinating bird behavior like a Green Heron nesting and fishing, a Great Blue Heron rookery and several Osprey nests around the lake. This nest was in a tree in Clear Lake State Park.
As I went around to the other side of the nest I could hear an Osprey screaming. It seems that the female of the pair was not to pleased with the male for some reason. She is the one with the brownish necklace and open beak.
Both the female and male Osprey incubate their eggs, the female incubating the majority of the time, and the male being the fisherman for the pair during incubation.
My guess is that this poor fellow has been shirking his duties in some way and now he has to answer to the boss! If you look at the full sized image, you can see that the male’s nictitating membrane is covering his eye in this photo.
I think he knows who is in charge here.
I don’t think this photo needs any explanation
He took off, presumably on a mission to bring back some fish, and she turned her attention to me.
Even I can read this look. “Do you want a piece of this too?”
No thanks madam. I’ll just be on my way now. Thank you for the photos 😉
To see more great bird photos, check out Bird Photography Weekly and World Bird Wednesday hosted by the insightful Dave Springman!
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