They never stayed still enough, or even got close enough for me to get a photo, but Yesterday I was entertained for over two hours by a pair of ospreys.
The first one I saw was cruising in a circle at about 150 ft. Using my binos on full zoom and my trusty Collins Gem Bird spotters guide to ID it, I concluded that it couldn't be anything else but an osprey.
Suddenly I lost it (not hard on full x 25 zoom), but soon realized that it had dived to strike, and I found it grounded in the meadow about 500 yds away. I couldn't make out what it had caught, but whatever it was, it was only mouse size at most. Suddenly, another big bird pounced on it. Knocking the Osprey for six, stole the prey, and headed skyward.
After quite a pause, the 1st bird recovered it's wits and chased after it. This 1st bird was substantially bigger than the 2nd one, but when it caught up, it made no attempt to attack. It just started putting on a fantastic aerobatic dance display, which the 2nd bird soon joined in with.
They entertained me with these aerobatics for quite some time, and I got the feeling that the mouse had been completely forgotten. Methinks maybe they had something else on their minds.
The aerobatic display gradually got further away though, and I eventually lost sight of them over the forest a mile or so further up the valley. I'm not really a voyeur, but I feel really privileged to have witnessed this, and I hope they choose our valley to settle down in so I can see more of them.
I wonder if suspending my paper one between the flagpoles would attract them nearer? The weather's still a bit too rough to try that out though.
Johnny.