Osprey

On the way heading into and out of the channel from the Marina in Deltaville, VA there were a couple of osprey nests on top of the channel markers. One of them had a pair of osprey with two babies, who were the size of large pigeons (the babies!). They squawked at us when we went by in the boat. Often, one of the adults would then fly away from the nest, perhaps trying to draw us away from their babies. I got a couple of fun shots of the family of four, but I liked this one the best because of the way it captured the eyes of the osprey.

I remember in the 80s when osprey were an endangered species. In Montana (where I grew up) there were a lot of efforts made to create habitat for osprey to build their nests. It's a joy to see that they have made a comeback!

One of the neatest things I saw when we were out sailing one day was when one of these birds plucked an eel right out of the water! It then flew around with the long, writhing eel in its talons and eventually it delivered the eel to the nest. I took a photo, but it only looked like a black speck in the photo because it was too far away. Lovely birds!