Monday, April 20, 2009

An Osprey Visits the Pond

Moby-Trout lolling around the shallows waiting to be fed and oblivious to the danger above.

In this scene from a trout horror movie, an osprey swoops down.
Dinner.

Breakfast & Lunch

A trip trout tremble at taking.

Osprey are birds of prey that are beautiful, quit large and feed exclusively (I think) on fish. They soar or perch over open bodies of fresh water until they spot a fish (like a trout) just under the surface, and then they dive on the unsuspecting fish, grab it with their talons and fly away to enjoy their meal on some cozy branch. Trout, as you might imagine, are not particularly fond of Osprey. As a birder on the other hand, I really enjoy seeing them as they are not at all common. Imagine my happy surprise then when I saw one swoop seemingly out of nowhere this morning and slam into our pond. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're a trout) the Osprey came up empty-taloned and flew off in what I can only imagine to be an embarrassed huff. I'm hoping this one little setback won't discourage this beautiful bird from returning. Obviously I don't want it to empty the pond of trout since it's nice to have something for the kids and grandkids to fish. On the other hand it's priceless having a front row seat at this sort of life and death nature show. Well, maybe not priceless. But the trout only cost about $5 a piece, and at those prices, I'm willing to feed the Osprey once a week.

1 comment:

Numeriklab said...

Are those pictures of the actual trout in the pond? If so, those are some lunkers. Can't wait to fish them out and eat them.