On Friday, I ventured for the first time to the Webber-Rogers Farmstead Conservation area (a property of the Kennebec Land Trust on the east side of our town). I have stayed away from this parcel because their rules forbade bringing a dog (something about rare and sensitive habitat?), so this was also one of the few times in thirty years I have gone on a patrol without a dog. It turned out that this was beneficial; not five minutes into the walk there was a “quip, quip, quip” sound which I thought was the conversation of an osprey.

As I neared the tree-lined shores of Potter’s brook, which provides the northern border of the Trust land, I spotted a large bird flying from tree to tree and then perching at the top of a tree overlooking the brook. He (presumably “he”) stayed there for thirty minutes just looking around. If I had Murphy with me, Murphy would have become quite antsy – or – the bird may have left immediately? I debated about moving on. The bird then flew across the brook to the far side (see image below). It sat there for another timeless eternity. Then he flew back near me on this side of the brook and hung out again high on a branch.

Then, as I stood there locked and loaded seemingly forever, waiting for this bird to do something, he bolted straight down and, BAM!

With my auto-focus set for moving objects, fast shutter speed, and pointing at the supersonic bird as best I could, I got some great images and some not so great. The image above right is technically poor but gives us the clear evidence that the osprey is one of the bird species that attack with claws first, rotating from a head-first dive just as they get to the water surface. The image at above left is the bird just as it emerges from the water. An image of the bird as it leaves the water can be seen at my public blog johnsfstop.com (posting later tonight, 9/14). Note: the bird came up with nothing in its grasp on this trip.