Wednesday August 4th at the Cottage with Ann

Ann and I paid the price for a late night on the dock watching the aurora, so as true slugs, we decided to have our morning coffee on the dock before heading out. Our first bird for the day, not counting the Osprey in the nest chattering away at dawn, was a Belted Kingfisher:

We returned to CKL Road 24 and found numerous Swallows along the hydro wires, basking in the sun and preening:

I found it fun to see how flexible they can be with their preening, unless they were auditioning for Cirque de Soleil:

Our next stop was the Osprey nest with the young Wingerciser, we were curious to see if he had any muscles sprains and strains from his earlier sessions. This was his opening number for us, he really is quite spectacular, isn't he:

...safely back on the nest now, I returned to the nest two days later and he had fledged!

This was certainly a family that enjoyed their food, we watched as one of the parents demolished a fish.

CAUTION: this sequence contains scenes of extreme violence and grossness, Ma Nature at her best:

...a fish morsel drops below, the table manners were medieval (I just heard that expression on True Blood last night, and it works here, hah!):

...more proof of a sloppy eater as flesh drops to the ground, do you think the five-second rule applies?

And did you know that the male will eat the head of the fish before bringing it home to the family? What a sweetie:

He eventually took off with the headless fish in tow, no sharing here:

And speaking of HEADLESS, we arrived at the bridge nest next, and I found these flight shots intriguing as the young Osprey appears headless!

...and he arrives at his final destination with one of his sibs already there, trembling with the fear of being crushed:

Ann and I watched this young one for quite a while all hunched over at the edge of the nest and we couldn't figure out why until he finally revealed his right foot that was tightly clenching a fish, so in fact he had been mantling over his food:

One of the parents was doing a fly-over so the young one was screaming:

So now are you getting it why it took me so long to edit all of these??

In a way, I can't wait for them to migrate so I can get my life back...

If I were a fish in the lake seeing those talons coming straight for me, I think I'd just croak on the spot...

One of the three young ones on the wing, absolutely magnificent:

By now, Ann and I were done- and it was only mid-day.

We returned to the cottage to pack up and head home, only to find three Osprey flying along the shoreline, the one on the right with a fish in tow:

So there you have it, I am now caught up on my blog- well, almost, that is, but this was a huge gorilla that's been on my back for weeks now, phewwww!

Many thanks again to Ann for an abfab time, it was worth all the editing to re-visit those few days together!