It’s that time of year when the mullet seem to run in the creeks and the tidepools, and even the birds have pretty good luck fishing. Here’s a photo from last year when I watched an Osprey fish:

And then the delicate balance of rising from the water after the dive:

This afternoon, I was headed to the Landings building to see if I could find some warblers, when I heard a noise in the live oak nearby. It sounded like something wet, flopping against something solid. Sure enough, I looked up to see an osprey with a good sized flounder (not a keeper by human standards, but big enough to be a challenge to fly with.) The flounder was still struggling, and the Osprey was still shedding water off the feathers in the lower part of his body.

The bird readjusted the fish for better leverage against the branch:

What the Osprey could either hear or see (and I couldn’t) was one of our recently returned Bald Eagles, keeping watch from the nearby tree. Eagles will occasionally steal fish, and I was startled when one lifted right off from the next tree over, chasing the Osprey off.

Co-incidentally, our neighbor Janet sent me this video last week– it’s a great depiction of Osprey fishing.  It shows a bird grabbing at least six fish at once, and it has another sequence of an Osprey catching a flounder (from both outside and UNDER the water.) Watch it in HD for best viewing.