More Ospreys

A few more from my recent trips to photograph these Rutland water Ospreys at a Trout farm. Early morning or late evening the hide is open and it would seem the worse the weather the better the chances of visiting Ospreys as during the more sunny days fishing opportunities may be  better at Rutland water. As with any nature photography a bit of luck is required and I hope to visit again next year.

Ospreys

First post for  while just been busy at work but have been out and about.These are images I took last month of some of a couple of  Rutland Ospreys. I went to a local trout farm called River Gwash Ospreys where they have installed a hide which they rent out to photographers to take pictures of these fantastic birds. They come very close to the hide a times to dive for trout so a long lense is not necessary but fast shutter speed and high ISO may be required at times. I had mixed results with my cropped sensor camera and I wish I had taken a shorter lense. I hope to go back with a my full frame camera and have another go.

Osprey at Larnaca salt lake

I was very lucky to capture this image of a resting Osprey at Larnaca Salt lake on my recent visit to Cyprus. The lake is a fantastic site between November and March when it has water and is full with Greater Flamingos. As these images show there was no water there when I visited and I was driving past the lake at about 8 am  having had a luckless early morning start trying to capture images at Larnaca sewage works. Whilst driving past the salt lake out of the corner of my eye I saw an Osprey sitting on a post and managed to get close enough to get some images. I used my new 2x nikon teleconverter on my 300mm 2.8f lense and fairly pleased with the results.

Osprey

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Cyprus was a close encounter with a migrating Osprey at Acna Dam. I had previously not seen one let alone photographed one so was very pleased when I saw the above bird hunting over the dam. I saw the bird on separate days and twice saw it dive and pluck a fish from the Dam. In the bottom photo if you look closely you will the bird clutching a fish that had just been plucked from the Dam. I was slightly unlucky that each time the Osprey hunted and dived for a fish it did so no more than thirty feet from where I had been standing 5 minutes earlier. I cannot complain too much however as at times this Osprey was no more than thirty feet above me and it was a pleasurable experience being so close to this hunting bird.