Category Archives: wildlife

Can the Osprey Keep It’s Catch?

In a previous post, I had a heron that was being challenged for its meal by an eagle. That was not the only battle underway for food I saw recently. An osprey came flying towards us while carrying a fish. I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen it make the catch, but the bay is large, and it had been off in the distance when it made the take. It was flying at us with the fish hanging down in its talons. We were not the only ones to spot it, though.

A bald eagle also had noticed what it was carrying and started to make a play for the meal. There ensued a bit of aerial jousting as the eagle swooped at the osprey and the smaller bird turned hard to evade its pursuer. It was able to keep away, but it wasn’t ever getting any separation and, I presume, it decided this was going to keep going until it was worn out unless it dropped the fish. The fish fell to the water, and I didn’t see the eagle find it so maybe it sank (unless the fish was still alive, in which case maybe it swam off).

Parakeets in Their Natural Habitat?

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Parakeets must be remarkably adaptable birds. When they escape, they seem to rapidly establish themselves in cities from which they did not originate. When we lived in Chicago, there was a park on the south side of the city which had a large parakeet colony. Richmond Park in London is a similar spot. We heard the parakeets before we saw them, but their bright flashes of color made them easy enough to spot when they got moving. They just seem to flourish wherever they are, even if they really should not be there.

How Will the Heron Eat This?

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This story is one of a bit of frustration. I took a while to get a good fix on this heron as it took off and, by the time I did so, it was heading away from me with no good angles. However, it was an interesting subject. The heron had caught itself a far larger fish than I normally see. Instead of grabbing it, it had skewered the fish with its beak. It must have had its mouth open at the time as the top and bottom mandibles had speared the fish separately.

It flew over to the shore and landed to contemplate its meal at which point one of the local eagles seems to have swooped in with the intent to steal the fish. The heron got spooked by this and took off again but dropped the fish in the process. The fish fell into the water and sank so I guess nobody got to eat it. I don’t know how the fish did but two sharp objects through its body probably didn’t help it too much.

A Hawk and a Rabbit – One Isn’t Happy

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While waiting for the arrival of some jets, we were treated to a little bit of wildlife spotting. A hawk had been hunting over the fields in our vicinity, but it started to head our way and I grabbed a bunch of shots as it came by out of habit. One of the group checked his pictures out while we continued to wait and noticed that the hawk was carrying its next meal. It appears a rabbit had been caught out in the open and was now no more. The nature of life in the wild, I guess.

Eagle Bugged by An Annoying Osprey

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Mum and I took a trip down to Juanita Bay to see what sort of wildlife was out and about. There was plenty of activity with both eagles and ospreys flying over the water looking for their next meal. At one stage, an eagle had caught a small fish and took it to a log in the water to enjoy. It seems that one of the ospreys decided that this could not stand and that the eagle should give up its catch. The osprey swooped down repeatedly at the eagle trying to get it spooked and to maybe leave the fish behind. The eagle was definitely annoyed by the osprey but was not inclined to move. This went on for a while but eventually the osprey realized it was futile and moved on.

Struggling with Bee Photography

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The flowers were out on some of the plants in our front yard and they were attracting the bees, so I decided to try again to get some bee shots. Rather than try and follow the bees around the flowers, I decided to see the camera up on a mount aligned with one flower and wait for the bees to come there. I used a cable release so I could sit back a bit and wait. This did require the plant to stay steady which, when the wind was blowing, was far from guaranteed.

I was sitting so still for a long time as I waited that a rabbit came walking across the yard to nibble some leaves that were by my feet. Since I wasn’t moving, it was totally oblivious to me. Rather than spook it by trying to get my phone out to photograph it, I let it eat in peace. It wandered off soon enough.

The bees dutifully showed up in my flower from time to time. I wasn’t sure how well the shots were coming out since I was just triggering with the cable release when things were in roughly the right place. I didn’t know whether the autofocus was going to choose the bee or part of the plant. There were plenty of misses, but we did get a few good shots where the bees were in shot, in focus and interesting enough. I was pleasantly surprised how many shots actually worked out. I had been quite pessimistic when taking the shots, so this was more successful than I had expected.

Birds of All Varieties So Let’s Combine Them

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I have put together posts for various animals that we saw during our trip to Kenya and Tanzania. We also saw lots of birds. Most of them I had no idea what they were, but our guides did a great job of telling us what we were seeing. Whether I can remember them all now, is a different story. Fortunately, I think I keyworded them shortly after we returned so I do have a chance. Rather than talk about the various different bird, here is a compilation of images of some of the ones we saw during our time away.

Otter Foraging

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I have been meaning to post some more otter shots for ages, but various things came first, and I have postponed this one a number of times – when I say postponed, I mean postpone even writing something as opposed to postponing the actual posting. This otter was busily moving around Juanita Bay as it searched for its next meal. I initially saw it coming across the water towards me. It swam around the inlet before heading to land so I could see it closer up in the water.

It then went back around the headland, and I thought it might be continuing off into the main bay, but it turned around and came out of the water onto the land near us. A quick shake to dry off and then a bit more of searching the ground for any hint of a snack. It didn’t last long. Soon it was back in the water and out towards the open water hunting for something tasty. I hope it found something good.

Jackdaws Searching for Snacks

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We stopped for a small snack at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park after our walk. We were heading to lunch later, but you don’t want your energy to drop so a cake of some sort is a necessity. The tables around the café provided plenty of food for the local jackdaw population and they were very keen to get whatever fell from the plates of the customers. With the sun on them, they looked really cool. I didn’t know what they were at the time, but the grey heads were quite distinctive, and I did a search later on t identify them. Funny to learn these things so long after I had lived in the UK.

Deer in the Royal Park

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Richmond Park is famous for its deer. You don’t have to go far in the park to come across some. They seem pretty relaxed despite the presence of so many people nearby but I imagine it is a long time since anyone in the park was hunting them, so they don’t see us as a threat anymore. As we went for a stroll, we came across a few groups of deer busy munching away. Occasionally, they would look at us as we got closer but their lack of interest most of the time was obvious!