Providing Shade

An Osprey is a large, fish eating bird of prey, they are also known as fish hawks.

I went back to Spring Lake to check on our local Osprey pair.

The last time I was at the nest was on June 28th and I shared those pictures here.

Both adults were home and it appeared 2 chicks had been hatched.

It was really hot on July 31st when I took these pictures and I did not see either of the little ones.

One adult Osprey was out of the nest, resting on a nearby pole.

The other adult was in the nest, wings spread wide...

I assume it was providing shade for the chicks.

It was very vocal, either communicating with the chicks or perhaps it was still in protective mode.

An Osprey readily builds its nest on manmade structures, such as telephone poles, channel markers,

duck blinds and nest platforms.

This is a manmade nest platform the Osprey come to every year.

They are large raptors reaching 24 inches in length, they have a wingspan of 71 inches.

I included this picture to show how large the talons are, they were massive looking.

I will return one more time to see the chicks.