Although I’ve never seen an Osprey at Malheur before and was told that they’ve failed to establish nests there because they can’t spot fish in the muddy water in the middle of summer, I managed to get the best shots I’ve ever gotten of one on this trip.
This Osprey was circling the small pond at the visitor’s center as I pulled up, so naturally I watched as it made several passes over the pond.
Although I got shots of it on passes where it failed to catch a fish, it was behind a tree when it caught this whopper and I had to settle for a shot of it carrying the huge trout
to a perch
where it could eat its catch.
Assuming that it would take a while to eat that big of a fish, I decided to get
closer, using the blind at the east end of the pond. Even though the Osprey seemed irritated by my presence
it continued its feast
long enough that I finally decided I wasn’t going to get a better shot than the ones I had already gotten and decided to look for more birds.