Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) taking off from its nest; Banff National Park, AB

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I must admit that for some reason I always thought that ospreys looked a little... silly.. Maybe part of it is that their head seems just a bit too small for their impressive body. But all that vanishes quite suddenly when you look through a long lens for hours, waiting for some action, and then this happens! That stare right into the lens, the huge claws, the obvious power in that body when it is propelled towards you with audible wing beats, that all makes you forget "silly" immediately!

During the second fieldwork period I had a chance though to spend many hours over several days with a couple of breeding ospreys near Castle Mountain. I chose my position between bushes at a respectable distance, where the pair did not give me any obvious attention during all the time I spent there. Most of the time one of them would simply sit on the eggs while the partner was out of sight hunting. This could last hours and usually the only action would really happen when the hunting partner would come in to bring food or to relieve the breeding partner. Just this once the take-off was exactly in my direction and it was breathtaking!