♥♥A collection of shots of an Osprey catching a big fish April 2013♥♥

♥♥A collection of shots♥♥

of an Osprey 

catching a big fish 

April 2013

I was on my way to Aspa-Maden, curious to see if I could spot 

something interesting. When arriving I could see that the nearby

fields had been flooded with water from all the snow which

had melted during the past weeks. To me that gives me a golden

opportunity to be able to get better shots since I am not able 

to get close ups on birds and animals which are too far away.
When the fields are flooded the birds gets closer to where 
I am able to be.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

I suddenly discovered that there was an beautiful Osprey hovering 

up in the sky. The osprey circle flew high above the lake with its 

wings slightly spread and suddenly he got a sight of a fish. With  
hanging leg the raptor was hovering and dives down towards prey 
with a giant splash. It was amazing to see. The Osprey have a 
vision that is well adapted to detect a fish from the air. They can 
actually spot the prey when being very high up in the air above the 
water surface, and when they decide to try and catch the fish they
hovers and then dive with their feet first into the water.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Instead of posting a lot of shots, I decided that a collection like this 

would be more interesting to see. Fish is the 99%, main diet for the 

Osprey, however they may prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other

birds and  small reptiles.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

The Osprey was fighting with the fish for a while in the water, luckely

it is rather shallow at the spot where the field is flooded.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

The Osprey is very well adapted to a diet of fish, they have an 

amazing gift, with reversible outer toes, sharp spicules on the 

underside of the toes, closable nostrils to keep out the water 

when diving into the water. And they have backwards-facing 

scales on the talons, which act as barbs to help hold its catch.

But even with all these things it still looked like the Osprey 

had a rough time lifting from the surface with the lively 

fish fighting for its life.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

  Then the fish was still and the Osprey was able to lift

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

  When I took these shots I could clearly see that the fish was rather 

big and that it looked really heavy. After this series of shots, the 

fish wriggled and the Osprey lost altitude and dropped down to 

the water surface once more before he managed to rise to a higher 

altitude heading towards the nest or his favourite eating spot.    

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Amazing to see how big the fish was, my guess is that it could 

be one of the Northen Pikes (Esox lucius) which have gone up in 

shallower water to spawn.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

The Osprey went away and so did I, happy and grateful for being 

there at the right place at the right time, and for being able to 

take some shots to show you all. 

Sunny greetings/Maria