On the hunt

After hill repeats with my buddy Brecht, and dropping the kids off at school, I parked by the lake near their school.  Keep in mind this lake is a storm water collection area for the neighborhood.  It is a beautiful little lake and is surrounded by a great park.  I had gotten a cup of coffee from the jiffy store a few hundred yards away from the parking area, and was settling in to do my morning reading when I took a moment to take in my surroundings.  

on the hunt

It was a cool morning and the lake had a fog over the surface.  There were wood duck on the surface and coming in, geese both in the lake and on the shore, several heron fishing for a meal, some sea gulls swimming around, and if you notice in the top of this photo, there is an Osprey (one of two that were soaring) on the hunt for some breakfast!!  The sights were amazing but the sounds were even more awesome.  All these birds were making the noises birds make and it was really cool to hear.  As I took it all in the Osprey seemed to be focusing on one area very intently.  Circling tighter and tighter, darting, hovering, starting to dive then pulling up.  There was a group of fowl below him (or her) and I began to wonder if the ducks were going to be breakfast for this bird.  Figuring he was getting ready to dive, I readied the camera to try to catch the impact.  Sadly, this is the best I could do with my point and shoot camera, but I did catch it if you look closely towards the top of the frame.  It was more impressive than it looks here, especially when you could hear the splash and the sound of its wings lifting it out of the water.  The Osprey struck out on this dive and as he got back up to altitude he gave a mighty shake, kind of like a dog does when they come out of the water, and began searching again.  

look closely to see the splash down