I had the good fortune to visit one of my favorite Osprey nesting locations this weekend. This site is just killer at sunset…..when there are Osprey sitting on a nest of course :-).

This was the first time I had a chance to visit this particular nest during the current breeding season. I have been here a few times over the last few seasons. This was the first time I have had a female feel threatened by my presence which I thought was odd given the nest was in a populated area. Since she seemed to be agitated, I grabbed my tripod and moved away as not to stress her. I’m sure you have heard the saying, “No image is worth the welfare of your subject”. I have never felt threatened by an adult Osprey before but she was definitely getting close overhead as I was retreating.

Once momma landed on the nest I slowly and gradually made my way back to the nest. She seemed fine with this.

I wasn’t really sure what the Osprey and her chick were focused on in the swamp, it was out of my view. But you can see here that they were not very happy. The male Osprey was watching about 150 yards away from atop a pile driven into the swamp.

Images captured with a Nikon D700 600 f/4 w/ 1.4 TCe-II on Lexar digital film.