I was on my way to work and thinking about how excited I was to capture the shots of the osprey for the Breakfast Is For The Birds post. What I didn't realize at the time was that when you live in a town with more lakes than houses osprey are commonplace and are considered a nuisance by the locals.
No one living here will get excited about a picture of an osprey when all they need to do to see one is step outside.
I guess that is how they tell the locals from the tourists...
As I drove the two miles to the office I scouted for osprey nests. They are easy to spot as they are normally quite large and in unobstructed spaces like the tops of dead trees or on top of light and power poles.
I was able to spot eleven nests - while I was driving!
As I looked for an even dozen I spotted a huge owl on top of a power pole. Within two seconds the car was parked and I was outside with the 200-400mm lens mounted and aimed up at the owl.
The last thing I wanted was for the thing to fly away before I had a chance to get a few shots.
I made adjustments to the camera by instinct because I didn't want to take my eye off of the bird.
No matter what it decided to do, I was ready!
But what it decided to do was sit there.
And sit there.
And sit there.
It wasn't even moving it's head...
... or blinking...
Pushing the zoom to 400mm I saw this:
I could almost hear the people in the nearby houses talking.
"George, come away from that window!"
"No, Martha, come look! We got ourselves another crazy with a camera shootin' that darned plastic owl!"
"Now, George, them's just tourists. Pro'bly from New York and never seen nothin but pigeons before."
So, yes, I had been fictimized. Someone had placed a plastic owl on top of the pole to keep the osprey away and I fell for it.
So, after a good laugh at myself I finished the drive to work.
While waiting for the morning guard to arrive and open the building I shot something a bit more real.
Snookered ... but you made up for it with the flowers which are incredible.
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