Most of us that have been fortunate enough to see one of these magnificent animals in the wild know how beautiful they are, and many great shots of this species have been posted here. Most however, are taken at some distance, and therefore have no absolute reference that reveals the true size of these guys.
At the last Merritt session, I was standing under the Osprey nest by myself (most everyone else had gone off to try to find a reported owl sighting). Three Crows flew up and landed on a telephone pole about 30 feet from the Osprey nest, and one of them decided to try to sneak over to the nest and check for left-overs. Very dumb move!!
The Ospreys tolerated this behavior for several minutes, but finally decided that enough was enough. I sort of saw this coming, but it happened so fast that I didn't get any really perfect shots. Here's one that shows what happened. Talk about your basic dumb-a$$ Crow.... :roll:
BTW, the wingspan of a Crow is usually over 3 feet. Figure from that how big this Osprey was. 8)
The Crows left immediately after this little episode. :wink:
At the last Merritt session, I was standing under the Osprey nest by myself (most everyone else had gone off to try to find a reported owl sighting). Three Crows flew up and landed on a telephone pole about 30 feet from the Osprey nest, and one of them decided to try to sneak over to the nest and check for left-overs. Very dumb move!!
The Ospreys tolerated this behavior for several minutes, but finally decided that enough was enough. I sort of saw this coming, but it happened so fast that I didn't get any really perfect shots. Here's one that shows what happened. Talk about your basic dumb-a$$ Crow.... :roll:
BTW, the wingspan of a Crow is usually over 3 feet. Figure from that how big this Osprey was. 8)

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The Crows left immediately after this little episode. :wink: