Hi Dennis and all,



Having just finished my annual float trip on the Deschutes in central Oregon, I was fortunate to see Osprey constantly.? There are literally dozens of nests, and we probably saw a couple hundred individual birds, putting on an incredible show.? Watching them fish is particularly amazing in a river with a strong current.? The video link here is excellent (I saw it a few days ago on another site) but the water is fairly calm.? On the Deschutes, there are very few places where there isn't at least a riffle, and the current is usually pretty substantial.? It never gets old watching the birds nearly submerge in a fairly strong current, wondering how they're going to get out, but they always manage to do so.? Here is a link to a photo I took on the Deschutes a few years ago showing the bird?in the process ?of shaking water off.? I would describe it as an abrupt ?shudder of the whole body, and it's quite effective at getting the majority of the water off quickly.? The link here shows a bird with a pretty large rainbow trout that it clearly doesn't have in control yet, with the bird kind of in the middle of the shake.? You can see water droplets off the bird and the fish, and the head of the bird turned as it is shaking.? The bird did, shortly after this shot, gain control of the trout, got the fish's head pointed forward, and flew off to enjoy the meal.



The link is at - http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?LID=&photoID=6688220&cat=38975 .



The plentiful Common Mergansers on the Deschutes actually use the river current to their advantage when fishing.? The mergansers always seem to be in groups of 6 or so up to as many as 20 - don't know if they're family groups, or maybe it's just more efficient to hunt together.? When one of these groups is ready to fish, they paddle out into a riffle, face upstream and just float along with the current.? Then they'll dip their head underwater, see a fish on the bottom, dive and pop back up, all the while just drifting rump-first downstream with the current.? By doing this, they're able to cover a lot of water (and fish) with essentially no effort devoted to finding the fish - the only energy expended is when they see one and dive for it.? They are very efficient at catching them ?as well, seeming to come up with a trout on well over half their dives.?





John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net





----- Original Message -----


From: "Dennis Paulson" <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
To: "TWEETERS tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 8, 2011 8:11:14 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Fwd: Osprey in flight

Incredible images. Watch the Osprey shaking water off after a dive.



Begin forwarded message



































The best fisherman in the world. Boy, what amazing photography. Especially the underwater part!!


















http://www.arkive.org/osprey/pandion-haliaetus/video-00.html


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-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net




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