November 5th, 2009

Florida IPT February 2009, Osprey & Brown Pelican

November 5th, 2009

On our first day of the tour, after the amazing visit to Venice Rookery, we visited Placida Bay in the afternoon. Armed with a casting net we hunted our bait fish, partly for the same day, but mainly for our next day’s visit to Estero Lagoon, to lure the birds in. Here the leader in action:

Casting the net for fish

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During the midday break, I was witness to some great Osprey action. This Osprey was coming in with a needle fish, freshly caught from the bay.

Osprey with Needle fish

This image is a composite of two images, as the upper part of the image was missing and so the left wing was clipped. I had a next image in sequence with a less good head turn, but with a good wing. With some cut/paste work in photoshop I managed to merge the two good parts together in one image.

The Osprey made a flyby and settled on an electrical post, to consume the fish. The fish, however, was still alive and wasn’t going to surrender without fight. Upon landing on the post, the Osprey was in for a stingy surprise and was attacked by the needle fish.

Osprey attacked by Needle fish

The Osprey decided to take another round in the air to get a better grip on the fish.

Osprey attacked by Needle fish

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Once a good grip was arranged, the fight of the fish was over

On the pier at Placida we got to play with a few hungry Brown Pelicans. They provided us with a few beautiful flight moments.

Brown Pelicans

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Juvenile Brown Pelican

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And a good fight of two over a fish

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Note the hole in the beak … it is the breathing hole

After the excitement, we did find time to take trials at different photographing techniques, like blurring the motion.

Brown Pelicans in blur

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Almost a cartoon

Later in the afternoon we took to a small bird island in the bay, using a pontoon-boat. On the way there we passed an Osprey nest and as we passed I managed to take a few images from the bird taking off from the nest.

Osprey nest