Growing in an Osprey's Garden #7

Oh, these are a bit all over the place. This should be back at the beginning with Big Hook on the pole branch.

Who said that birds can't show expressions?

Coming in from the side.

Diving down from above.

Zooming away after having landed on Big Hook's back.

Yet another day (I think) and Harmony arrives at the nest with a flourish. It is flying with such ease and confidence it's hard to believe that just over two weeks ago we feared for its life after it fell from the nest.

And sure enough, the Willie Wagtail is there within seconds.

Last one for now. I have some shots of them in the trees outside Madame X's place that I haven't gone through yet. I'll post them when I can.

Those are amazing Margaret! Those Willie Wagtails are so funny, I love the one where he is sitting on Dad's wing yelling at him. Harmony looks tremendous!
Thanks for the update!

Here's a 400mm point and shoot shot of Harmony flying very close overhead three days ago.

Margaret, the beautiful pictures and new development with the Ospreys family is most wonderful. Those WWTs are too funny for words! I've been quietly observing your thread with awe! Thank you.
Kim

Margaret: As always, outstanding shots of the beautiful Ospreys, and those little Willie Wagtails are so cute! I love the shot of the wagtail on Dad's wing as well. It looks as if willie wagtail is saying "Now don't ignore me, pay attention to what I'm telling you!" Although I know Osprey's know what's going on in their surroundings and Big Hook knows the wagtail is right there, a good caption for the photo showing the wagtail coming in from the side: "Now where did that pesky little fella go?" The shot showing the wagtail diving from above is great too. The position reminds me of the chimney swifts we see flying so fast and diving down into chimneys.

It sure is hard to believe that it was just a little over two weeks ago that little Harmony (who isn't so little anymore) fell from the nest. Baby Osprey has grown up so fast and really looking like a proper Osprey now, a gorgeous bird! One of my favorite shots is of Harmony coming in for a landing at the nest site! She looks so confident in her abilities.

Great job as always ... looking forward to more photo's.

Oh those baaaad wagtails!

That's my favorite shot too, plantladylin. Such a nice action shot Margaret.
I have to give it, to that Willy wagtail. He's very is tenacious, in his task. But do pity those poor birds, being harassed. Harmony is so beautiful.

Oh Margaret, just when I thought your photos couldn't get any clearer, you post these. WOW! Think one of my favorites is the wagtail almost sitting on dad's back. Amazing!

Wow! Just look at those wonderful photos!! Spectacular, Marg!

Gosh, what great shots! I can only ditto what everyone else has said.

Thank you for your comments. In the late afternoon, when the nest isn't in and out of shadow, the lighting is just beautiful and it makes it easier to get decent photos.

There hasn't been much happening lately. The weather continues to warm up, so they're spending very little time at the nest until very late afternoon. Dad is still around, but seems to be leaving the fish-mongering to Big Hook. The only action I've seen has been with the Willie Wagtails. Pete is back from India and may post a few shots that he's taken since his return.

After arriving with the usual fanfare, Harmony was being badgered by a Willie Wagtail.

..

Lin, do Chimney Swifts really dive down chimneys? I guess they must, hence their name. How amazing.

The sight of those tiny little legs sticking out from behind Harmony's head cracks me up.

The antics of these endearing little birds never fails to amuse.

Once again, the Willie Wagtail wins out and Harmony returned to the nest. It didn't stay there all that long. I could hear it lower down in the trees, but it hadn't returned by the time I needed to leave.

Wow, I love those shots Margaret. I can only imagine the joy watching those birds in action in person. I can't wait until Pete is over his jet lag and adds on some photos of his own.

Wonderful shots Margaret! Just love the Wagtails along with the Ospreys!

Hi Pelle, I couldn't believe how big and beautiful Harmony/Havoc has grown to be!

More wonderful shots! Love the one with Willie Wagtail and Harmony on the branch staring each other down! Pic's like that make me wonder what they are thinking.

Margaret: Yes, the Chimney Swifts dive down into the chimneys and build their nests on the inside of the walls: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=chimney+swifts&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=eK8rS_SkNNCVtgfW6bj8CA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBwQsAQwAw

The Chimney Swifts are a common sight here during the summer months. They are very fast fliers, and it's fun to watch a group of what seems like 25 to 30 or more birds swooping around in the sky and then all of them as a group diving into a chimney together! We had our chimney capped many years ago because they can really make a quite a mess during nesting times. One summer about 25 years ago, a bird fell down into our fireplace. Luckily we have glass doors across the front of the fireplace, so the bird didn't get loose into the house and the cats couldn't get to it! We scooped it up with a towel and released it outside where it flew off. I'm not sure why it couldn't fly back up the chimney, unless it was too dark for it to see to fly back up. The chattering sounds are quite loud when you get bunches of them living in your chimney too. We didn't want them nesting inside the chimney so we had a chimney sweep come clean out the chimney and put a cap on it.

We have friends who have never had their chimney capped and they've had a major problem with these birds. We don't have real cold weather here very often so we don't use our fireplaces much. One year they had a dead swift inside their fireplace and didn't realize it. My friend said for a long time she kept hearing a hissing noise coming from the area of the fireplace and she was worried that a snake had gotten down the chimney. I told her it was the birds but she didn't believe the noise she was hearing was from birds. Another time she began smelling something really rank and couldn't figure out what it was. She thought maybe her "grand dog" who visited often maybe had an accident on the floor somewhere, but she couldn't find anything. Her son was visiting one time so she asked him to check it out and he decided it was indeed coming from the vicinity oft he fireplace. When he opened the glass doors and screen, thousands of flies came swooshing out into the house! She said it was like a horror story with all the flies everywhere that they had to kill! She swore she was going to get a cap put on their chimney but they haven't gotten around to having it done yet!

You know, you can put up a "chimney" that's good for them. Would be fun to have in the back yard and watch them dive in. Plus doing them a whole lot of good.

http://www.concentric.net/~dwa/page55.html

Mrs_Ed, I doubt if I could talk my DH into building one of those but I've printed it out to show him! That chimney is so cool, what a great idea - the Chimney Swifts are good to have around, they eat tons of flying insects!

Yah, i'd have one for sure If I had swifts in my area!

Great pictures Margaret!! Really like the Harmony (landing in a flourish) shot. Those WW's are just relentless. lol

It is really is fascinating watching these birds and I just hope the photos convey a sense of what it's like to be there. Harmony is like Aussie was at the same stage last year, announcing its approach to the nest, which is good because it gives us the heads up to a bit of action. Big Hook and Dad can be heard making their calls sometimes before they leave a tree to either come to the nest or head off on a fishing trip, but most of the time their approaches are silent.

I have just a few shots from four afternoons ago when all three birds were in the trees outside Madame X's place.

Big Hook.

I've included this because I feel it shows the nictitating membrane quite well. You should even be able to see her pupil through it.

All three birds are very comfortable with how close we are to them. Big Hook having a snooze.

And Dad yawning.

And lastly, the kid, Harmony.

Great shots! They are all looking healthy and happy.

Hello Margaretk. I haven't been able to follow along for a while but just went thru this tread and all I can say is these photos are exquisite. You are doing very well with the 400. I see not having IS has not been an issue at all. The 400 5.6 is sharp wide open. The 400 is in perfect hands. Again exquisite photos you have.

Take care

Thanks Pelle and Al. Al, if you saw some of my shots from this afternoon, you may want to retract your words. I overexposed. Probably salvageable, but disappointing, nonetheless. Maybe Pete can post the shots he got of Harmony getting fed up with the relentless harassment by the WWT and chasing it off.

Overexposure happens but if you shoot or shot them in RAW you may be able to recover the highlights, but if shot in jpeg they are most likely cooked. I always shoot in RAW but then again I don't mind working the photos in photoshop.

Another nice series of photos. Anytime you shoot Manual you run the risk of over-exposure or under-exposure. When the subject stays put, you have time to shoot several images at different Manual settings. When I go out in the field, I preset my Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual settings so that all I have to do is quickly move the dial from one to the other. You still miss sometimes but you have a one in three chance for starters.

The last couple of times I was at Conowingo, I shot shutter speed priority almost exclusively. Because most of my shots are moving, shutter speed is the main issue. I've set it at 1/1600 of a second and won't go any lower than 1/1000 of a second if the clouds reduce the lighting. I prefer keeping my ISO at 400, or less. You have done really well with the Osprey shots with its white and dark markings. I seem to have difficulty with the adult Bald Eagle, i.e. white head and dark body. It seems as though the white head is overexposed some. I eliminated that problem this past summer while shooting all white birds by using spot metering. Perhaps, I should be using a different metering mode on the Bald Eagles.