On the way home from our Marquette show we had a few hours to spare and so stopped at one of our favorite up north spots, Seney National Wildlife Refuge. We couldn't do one of the drives since we had our camper and trailer, so we walked the nature trail instead. About fifteen minutes into our jaunt I spotted an osprey coming in for a landing in a dead tree to our right. I got the tripod up in time to catch its landing in the tree.
It wasn't immediately obvious that it had a fish until it rearranged it in order to better grip its perch.
I couldn't tell what kind of fish it was, but Lori was pretty sure it was a northern pike, and this shot confirmed that. The fish was very much alive and kicking at this point, flopping around in the bird's firm grip. Shortly after this the ospery started to snack on its catch, but I'll spare you those shots.
After getting a good number of shots, we moved farther down the path to a closer vantage point. The bird would call out occasionally, and was answered by its babes in a nest behind us and across a pond. I was lucky enough to get this shot of the osprey leaving its perch to deliver its catch to its babes, too far away for me to get shots of.
We continued our hike, enjoying the scenery, and after a while we saw another, or the same, osprey fly out over the nearest pond and then hover, watching for fish. We were in a little grove of trees on a bit of land jutting out into the pond, and we watched as the osprey flew right towards us and then landed in a tree, right over our heads. (The other photos in this post are cropped quite a bit, but this one is full frame.) What a moment! It paused long enough for me to get a few shots and then flew off to continue its search for fish.
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