A Day for Raptors

Today I visited Honeymoon Island State Park (by myself!!) for the first time. Not knowing what to expect I went directly to the Nature Centre and got some excellent advice on where to go. So I headed straight for the 3.5 mile nature walk. Parked, set up “bigger” with a 2x on my D4 and assembled the Really Right Stuff gimbal head for my new Really Right Stuff tripod and off I hiked! (Wow is that load heavy!)

The first photographic encounter was with an Osprey. He was on a snag with his flounder, but he seemed agitated. After some flapping of the wings and manipulating of the talons holding the flounder, he freed himself from it and the flounder promptly fell to earth. Poised for some action shots, I expected the Osprey to retrieve his breakfast, but it just stayed on the perch wishfully looking down at it’s breakfast! There were many nests with one or two Osprey in them. It is clearly nest “trimming” time as the extremely loud and long screeching would announce an Osprey coming in to land on the nest bearing a large twig. There then ensued a long period fo trying to find where the twig should reside.

The next encounter was brief as a Merlin alighted on a snag, but flew away after a few clicks.

Then came the big event. A pair of Bald Eagles attending their two chicks in the nest. Although the Bald Eagle’s nest is the biggest nest made by any bird, it did appear a bit crowded for the two adults and two chicks. So the only time both adults were on the nest was for the delivery of food. I stood and watched Mother Nature here for some three hours, making the occasional click. many people walked up and watched for a while or took a few clicks. During periods of no apparent activity I let folks look through the viewfinder. They were amazed, one lady said it had made her day!

I wonder what is in store tomorrow?