Waiting For An Osprey

This last couple of weeks or so has seen me driving into the Lake District away from my usual haunts in Lancashire.It has long been a photographic ambition to obtain some decent images of ospreys.Previously I have only photographed very poorly, one that briefly visited Leighton Moss when I was there. Ospreys are currently doing very well in the Lake District with five and maybe more sites now occupied.After the nesting successes in Scotland the birds have moved south and are now resident at a few sites in England and Wales.

One of the well known sites in southern Lakeland is at Foulshaw Moss.Here the ospreys have raised three chicks this year.Cumbria Wildlife Trust have provided an excellent nest cam which gives wonderful images of the comings and goings at the nest site.I have shown above a screen grab of the two parents and chicks and recommend tuning in to have daily views of the family life of the ospreys.I visited Foulshaw Moss but the nest site is a long way from the viewing platform and even a telescope gives limited viewing.I have shown above a couple of my images from Foulshaw of the viewing platform and the very distant nesting tree.

My main destination was another site situated in a beautiful part of the Lake District.At this location there are two pairs of ospreys present and the chances of seeing one or two are quite good.I have made four visits and have seen birds on each occasion.The views were however not very good.The birds were distant and I only managed a few record shots.There was however other bird life to keep the camera busy and whilst there I received much information from a local wildlife photographer.Again shown above are some rather poor record shots of the ospreys and better images of the other bird life present at the location.

I was there again yesterday on a lovely very warm last day of June.This time one of the ospreys came to fly over the lake giving me some better opportunities for images in lovely evening light.I was pleased with the results and will publish some of the better shots next time.I will be returning again in a few weeks when there should be much more action as the chicks develop.Thanks for looking in and keep tuned.