So this past Saturday 7-13-19 I did a first and got in my Kayak and floated in on fred and Wilma's piece of earth in the Morning,  yep every shot you've seen from me the past 3 years from the kayak of Fred and Wilma and their kids have always been midday to evening, thought I'd try the morning and see how the light reacts around the tree's for close-ups.   It was'nt bad, I had tons of sunshine the whole time, its just the trees weren't giving me the backgrounds of soft light the evenings give me here.  BUT  the Fred and Wilma Action was constant and saw a few firsts for me,  I saw 3 or 4 pretty sweet Launches from perches from Fred,  Wilma stayed in the nest for the entire time after she brought in a fish Which I didn't photograph, I was locked on Fred at the time by the tree's by me on shoreline.

The Special Story this day was Fred, he impresses me each year but this day he showed me his undying devotion to raising his kids. He was very protective this day, you see last week when I left last Saturday there were 3 young ospreys in the nest, but arriving this morning I saw only 2 left, I did'nt get a chance to ask any of the locals yet if anyone knows what happen to the young osprey,   Various reasons birds just don't make it and its really sad for those of us that photograph them. Life is unpredictable and birds in the wild, its very.  Sad. So your gonna have to scroll down and see how Fred and Wilma and the remaining 2 kids day went.  I'll discuss between photo's at times,  trust me its worth the scroll.  Proud of a couple of these launch pics.

The last 3or4 photo's in this blog I'll never ever forget what Fred did.  Was a memorable day and well worth the sunburn I got of 6 hours in the kayak capturing it all.   I cannot wait to see the young ospreys takes there first flights in the nest couple weeks, stay tuned for those. I'm sure I'll write another blog of the kids this year.

6:26 am 13 minutes after sunrise, Young osprey testing and strengthing his wings jumping around the nest   

6:43 Fred brings in first fish of the day

6:44 fred takes off

Love it when Fred takes off he heads straight for the water to skim it,  going into today I was hoping to get a head on shot of this happening, its a shot I've always wanted

I did'nt really get into position in time for it though, I gave him some space to fly to my left in hopes he's be perching in his fav tree's he lets me photograph him from, success each time this day with me giving 

him the space

Good Job Fred on the first fish!

6:56am he takes off for what turned out to be the second fish of the day

I actually misfocused on this one the eye was not sharp but photoshop has a feature I've used a handful of times over the years called shake reduction, sometimes it works

sometimes it doesn't,  really mess's with other things in the image and looks bad sometimes. this time I think the eyes are a save,   tons of post to get it right where its at now haha

7:25am second fish of the day just for the kids,  Wilma is not around yet.

7:27 back to sit with me and chill

Right wing stretch his talon is underneath doing the same thing

Like this,   he stretches his right foot more than his left.  like 4 times the right and only once the left. (this day)

9:05 am fred takes off and I'm ticked I missed it,   Wilma came back to the nest with a fish over my right shoulder and I looked that way because Wilma was putting

on the distress call of an intruder, i should have known Fred was gonna take off, thats why I was a little ticked off with myself.

Anyhoo first John Wick moment of the day by Fred,   I look over the horizon and see why he left and why Wilma was yelling,  I saw this Young Bald Eagle do two Barrel rolls

upside down,  then I captured this photo, note Fred has his killing tools down ready to battle with a bird much larger than him,  love the scall really shows how a 6 or 7 foot wingspan of 

a Eagle is compared to the 5 foot of an Osprey.  anyways Fred chased the eagle off, they never locked talons.  probably a good thing Fred.

10:11 am Fred With fish number 3 of the day bringing it to the nest. 

Nice portrait of the two kids on the left, Fred then Wilma

10:15 Fred taking off again to come sit with me again

John Wick Moment number 2 about to take place, I hear Wilma with the distress call at the nest I did not take my camera of Fred this time and was rewarded with a hella of launch sequence of pics

There were 2 Great Blue Herons coming into the no-fly zone.  note the heron in the background left thats the second one, and note Wilma in the nest,  each time the kids

know to GET DOWN! 

Fred chased both of the herons over to me,  I swear this heron was gonna hit me in the head, it felt like it was sooo close overhead when he yelled in protest of Fred's savage attack

He chased the second one around the corner and my last pic which was not a keeper but Fred had his talons down ready to kill,  just a scare tactic though.

Back to a branch near me,   Good job Fred,  Those mofo GBH's huh!!!

He was panting and out of breath for a while,  was near 90 and he just did major combat.  What an Athlete that Fred.

Wilma Starts the alarm warnings again, Fred looks up and see's an Adult Bald Eagle,   he's probably thinking awe crap, really don't want to deal with a adult Eagle right now haha

Wilma and the kids with there heads down during the Adult Eagle fly over.

11:40 I was getting tired/hot from the sun(I did take a shade lunch break for 20 minutes)   but yeah I was getting content with what I had captured earlier but the light was great here, the background was cleanish, I kept thinking just one more

just one more, the situation would be great for another launch and my wait paid off.   Fred taking off which turned out for a fish hunt/ teaching lesson for his kids  

Twice he circled near by And I thought ah man could this be my ultimate fishing shot I've been waiting for?  nope it was'nt  but yeah with his eyes locked on a fish beneath he dove down near the water

but put on the brakes before hitting the water,  his kids are all seeing this from the nest.  these fishing moves 

Fred on the other side of the lake does take the plunge for a fish,  you can see him popping up here

he came up empty with a fish  BUT again his kids all saw this. dad showing us how to fish.   THESE last 4 photo's I'll never forget what he did or how he sounded.

i have never heard him di this or other ospreys for that matter, it sounded like a fire alarm, it was really loud,  he was fluttering and standing in the Air, as if to say  ANYBODY WANT MORE OF ME????  did'nt look like a hunt

it looked like a Super Dad teching his kids all the tricks in the book on how to be a Osprey,  I truly believe he was motivated after losing a kid earlier in the week, he wants his kids to grow fast and succeed in being a Osprey. He showed 

many tricks of the trade this day, I was Grateful to witness it all

Fred if you drank Beer I'd buy you one.  You are an incredible Osprey and Dad.  I've said that a few times.

Thats all for now,

If you made it this far I thank you, hope you enjoyed my day with Mr Fred

Cheers

Capn