At last an Osprey catching a fish

There are certain pictures that I want to catch and today I nailed one of them, at least to a certain degree.

I actually didn´t have anything on my mind this morning, but I woke up early and there was a heavy cloud bank outside that made the light a little less intensive so I thought I should give it a shot.

The light is really an issue in the middle of the summer as we have light for almost 18 hours. The nights are not really dark and this makes this period both good and bad. The good thing is of course that we have so much light and the bad thing is that you really need to be out early or late to catch the best light.

When I left home at 6:40 the sun had been up for more than two hours. That meant I had missed the best light if it wasn´t for the cloud bank. I wanted to investigate the area at Torslanda as this is one of the best bird watching places in Gothenburg. I have been there once or twice before with any real luck. This time I wanted to go there prepared so I checked the observations for the last couple of days to get a feeling about where I could go. There were two areas that looked interesting and they were on either side of a small lake.

I decided to start on the western side. That I did with one thing in mind and that was to use the clouds to my advantage as I otherwise would have had the sun coming straight at me. The place was teeming with life and I left my car at and old airfield.

I walked around the air field and in the area nearby. I had many good photo opportunities and I know that if I had used the bag hide, then I would have gotten many more good photos. I really need to focus better when I see the opportunity and use the tools I have to get the pictures I desire.

This is the picture I like the best and it is a singing Marsh Warbler, that is at least what I think it is.

Singing Marsh Warbler 130609

It just appeared in front of me when I tried my luck with a Reed Warbler. I had to work to nail the picture, but the small warbler was really co-operation and I managed to get a couple of frames when the bird was singing. I like the light and the green background showing the bird in its natural habitat, but it is the singing that makes the picture for me. No singing equals an ordinary portrait. Now it is a portrait with a little extra.

I now felt that I had to try the luck on the other side of the small lake.

I know there is a Sand Martin colony there and that was what I had in mind initially. The Martins was out showing themselves nicely and I stopped there to try to get a couple of pictures. Martins and Swallow are really hard to work with as they are small and agile, but I got one or two nice pictures of the Sand Martins and you can see one in the gallery.

When I felt ready at the colony I started to walk out towards the sea. I could hear birds singing from every corner and now the cloud bank was gone so I really had to take that into consideration when I took the photos. The area is also known for its raptors so I kept an eye in the sky to see if something special could be seen.

I had walked for a couple of hundred meters when I glanced back at the Sand Martin colony. There was something big up in the sky and my first thought was a big Gull of a sort, but that changed when I saw it hover. It couldn´t be a Kestrel or a Falcon, it was too big, so I raised the camera and took a photo to check. The small silhouette in the frame must be an Osprey, I was sure of it. So back I went trying to keep an eye on the whereabouts of the Osprey. I managed to find the lake in which it hunted and stood there trying to figure out what to do as I had the sun from the wrong direction. I took a couple of photos just in case and then watched the Osprey as it hunted over the lake. It tried a couple of times before it flew away to test another small lake.

This meant I hurried over to the other side of the lake and just sat down by the water’s edge on a rock. This was a lucky move as the Osprey came back, together with its mate, hunting over the lake for an hour or more.

They tried many times without succeeding until I caught a Osprey in the act of climbing out of the water with a tight grip on a European perch.

Osprey with a catch 130609

This is a Osprey picture I have tried to catch a couple of times without success, but today I nailed it, almost. I think there is room for improvement and I will surely go back to see what I can do. A perfect scene would be to get the dive, with the plunge, and then a perfect 5-10 frames when the Osprey takes off with the fish. I almost managed it today, but I had to throw away of couple of frames as they were blurry.

It was a real treat for me to see the spectacle in front of me and I will go back there earlier next time to hopefully get the Osprey in the soft morning light.

I hope you enjoy the gallery from today, the first two is actually from yesterday, and don´t forget to look at the pictures at full screen.