Osprey Mom Teaching Fledgling to fish

Hi. We made it through the first of the holiday tribulations and are getting back to a normal routine. Funny how long it doesn’t take for me to get accustomed to the traffic and lines. Not one for the whole Black Friday thing, we opted to do our holiday a different way,by Johnny and his crew playing a gig for the members of the group they belong to. It was a nice, close knit way to spend the day giving thanks. Seeing as how we were at the gig all day, instead of the traditional turkey feast, starving, we opted for Waffle House. 🙂 Different, but we had fun with the folks working, which gave us a moment to appreciate everything we had, mostly and foremost each other. No matter if we were in a field all day playing guitar, or at a mansion, as long as we were together, that is what the day was for us. We are rich… 🙂 Hope your holiday was great.

Enough of that. Let’s get to the title of the post, shall we?

Went fishing yesterday, and while the current wasn’t doing what we wanted it to do to produce the “bite”, there was a bunch of activity going on. I kept hearing the screeching of Osprey, and lot of it. Incessant even. Being around the water, it is a familiar sound, but this was non-stop. The birds were acting differently; dive-bombing, yelling at each other, and all clustered up over the river, diving, diving, diving.  With not much luck.Not the norm at all.

Then I realized. This was school. “How to catch your own fish, because now you can fly” school. I wanted to share this; I will call this my first of hopefully many “documentary” stories with images. Photo Journalism is what they call it I think. 🙂

One of the many Osprey. So you can tell  the difference between a male and female Osprey. The male has a white chest, while the female has a spotty, “necklace” or freckles if you will….  As you can see, this is a male.

Click images to enlarge…….. 

Below, you will see the art of hovering, dive bombing, retrieving, and returning with food.

This is how you hover.

Bend your wings and dive like this to gain speed. Keep your eye on the prize……………

Before you hit the water, stretch you legs and extend your talons, so you can grab your food. Keep your eye on the prize.

Get ready to get wet, but that will work in your favor. Grab your prize.

Now that you have what you want, take it and go.  Like this.

While the fledgling was paying close attention, it took no time to try to beg the food and take it as it’s own.

Hey!  What about me??

A couple aerobatic maneuvers teach the baby how to keep its food in the event of a rogue trying to steal it……….

That’s that for today.  I hope you enjoy this as much I did when I saw it. 🙂 It did have a happy ending. the baby shared the fish in a nearby tree………… 🙂

Susan