Ospreys Everywhere

The day was planned - an early start to photograph the *********  Osprey in better light. The weather was ideal, the wind had dropped and the early morning sunshine was going to hold for some time. Whilst we were having breakfast we were alerted by the sound of all the resident birds going into alarm, Oystercatchers, Lapwings and Curlews , even Jackdaws and a solitary passing Raven joined in. I glanced up out of the sitting room window - Osprey!!! and going into a hover over the Lochan. The next bit was a scene from a Brian Rix farce, the cameras were in the car, after my third gyration I managed to calm down enough to get a camera out. The bird circled just once more and posed for me before going into a hover and diving, unfortunately the plunge was obscured by the only tree adjacent to the loch and I was left photographing a bird receding into the distance with a large Brown Trout in its talons.

Suddenly the day's plans were in the bin, after all we had our own Osprey - all to ourselves. Get more gear - quick! Of course all the excitement befuddled my brain - what appeared to be a juvenile(ish) Osprey had just caught a Brownie of about 2lbs in weight - I guess it was going to be some time before he/she would be hungry again. From the hundreds of shots that I had fired off it another problem was apparent. The bird was hovering facing the prevailing westerly wind and the light was from the south east - a stark choice, a dark front or a well lit behind.  In the end I decided to stay up sun as the dives would be difficult to track and I thought that I would get some reasonable shots of the bird's emergence with any catch.

Alarm!!

One of Lochan Lodge's Brown Trout goes West