Hi Everyone,

Here is the second set of 'fishing raptor' images I was fortunate to capture on my recent Deschutes River (Oregon) trip. This set of three shows some interesting situations with an Osprey that has captured a large rainbow trout.

I was walking along the river and saw this bird flying downriver toward my location, and it had a large (by osprey standards in my experience) trout that it was still struggling to control. The first image shows the osprey doing one of their characteristic 'body shudder shakes' to get rid of some of the water it picked up diving for the fish. Interestingly, this first image shows the Osprey actually shaking its head. Although the image is not as sharp as it could be, if you look closely, you can see water drops coming off of both the bird and the fish. Note also that the bird only has the trout by one talon and the trout is wriggling trying to get free. (As many of you no doubt know, Osprey always carry a captured fish with the fish's body aligned in the direction of flight, with one leg behind the other, to obtain the most efficient aerodynamic situation. This bird hadn't gotten sufficient control of the trout to even have it held by both talons, let alone aligned pro!
perly.)
The second image shows the Osprey with more focus, having reduced its excess water weight and it is now concentrating on flying and controlling the fish better. I did not crop this image as much so you can get a sense of the habitat of the area. (This is on the dry side of the Cascades, at about 1,300 feet in elevation, rainfall no more than 12" per year. Vegetation is typical shrub-steppe, with sage, some juniper trees and the occasional Ponderosa pine. There is a narrow riparian band along the banks of the river.) In the third image, note that the bird has reversed flight direction and is heading back to its nest, and now has the trout grasped with both sets of talons, but still has not gotten the fish aligned properly.

The following link at http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=6688220&cat=38975 is the first image, and clicking NEXT will go to the second and third images.

This bird, I believe, is one of the adults in a nest I have monitored for the last four years. The nest is very near to the campsite we stay at for four nights of the trip. It is so near a major camping flat on the river, and is directly over a fisherman's path up the river, that the birds constantly vocalize as people unavoidably come near the nest. The first two years I photographed this nest, I wondered if the constant comings and goings of fishermen really affected the birds other than causing them to vocalize warnings. Based on their nesting success, it is not a significant factor. These birds have had already-fledged young, or young that are getting close to fledging, every year we do the float trip. One of the four years they had a single chick, one year they had three and the other two years they had two.

In the 23 years we have done this float trip, the ospreys have continued to increase in population each year - so much so that I wonder how many territories are really available along certain stretches of the river anymore. I should have more accurately counted the nests and birds (next year for sure), but at a bare minimum we saw twenty nests on the 34 miles of river we floated. Most of the nests appeared to be active, and 2/3 to 3/4 contained one or more young birds.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com