Ospreys aren’t usually avid people watchers.
But this guy was!
He couldn’t hide his cross-eyed curiosity about the strange human looking up at him.
Eventually, he resumed more raptor-like disdain,
and went about the serious business of people ignoral.
He focused on anything but the nosy photographer.
Finally, my presence outlived his patience,
and off he flew in a rapturous huff!
Cheers to you from the people-watching osprey~
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Thick feathers I wold love to pet. He’s absolutely gorgeous and your photographs are, as always, stunning. I’m going to reblog all of this beauty so some others can enjoy it and be amazed by all the fabulousness of your work.
You are the reason I <3 blogging. Thank you sweet friend & Happy Hump Day!
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Cindy! There was an osprey in Wisconsin that I didn’t get to see up close, not far from my parent’s retirement home. A Nat’l Geographic photog set up a tent high in a tree to get photos. I did see the tent, not him or the osprey. This bird is majestic!
This reminds of when I was viewing grizzly bears fishing for salmon in Canada, and our hosts told us that Nat’l Geo photographers got underwater with the salmon to photograph the bears and their teeth and claws from the salmon’s perspective. Utterly nuts in my opinion, but I am sure the photos were incredible!
Love this! What a great personality in your beautiful osprey captures!
They are fascinating birds aren’t they, like eagles, but utterly unique.
He does look a bit cross-eyed. Love it!
Cross-eyed yes, but his vision is 20/20!
It’s soooooooooo cute.
He is. Ospreys always look a tad rumpled, like they are in need of a good haircut!
I didn’t realize ospreys are cross-eyed (or is it a peculiarity for this particular birdie??) Great bunch of photos, Cindy. I’d have been a little leery over being so close to him!!
They are cross eyed when looking at a single object directly in front of them. Their eyes have more peripheral vision than ours, so the pupils move around more.
Thanks for explaining that — I learn so much from my blogging friends!
So do I <3
Maybe he was fascinated by that adorable photographer. 🙂 Beautiful bird and photos Cindy.
I wish! But I suspect he was thinking more in line with the alien in Star Trek who called humans, “ugly bags of mostly water!”
Ha, ha. Maybe they’re alien tracking devices. 🙂
<3
Such an intense look. Great photos. Thanks for a lovely visit.
Thank you for taking the time to make such a lovely comment <3
My pleasure.
<3 <3
I haven’t been this close to one. They usually fly away. These images are wonderful. I love those eyes.
The eyes are incredible aren’t they. Crossed, but all seeing!
😁
Look at him sitting there on the wire looking at you. What happens if his tail touches one of the other wires?
Leslie
Frightening thought. If the two lines have different electrical potential, then electrons will move through the body of the bird, and the bird will be electrocuted.
That’s what I thought…
<3
I sure wouldn’t want to be at the other end of those talons…wow!
Rather formidable aren’t they!
You and your camera were so close to him, Cindy. Great photos. Love the details and his eyes your captured, Wow!!
Honored Amy& very pleased you enjoyed him. I always am impressed with your photos, so we are even <3
💗🙏
What an incredible capture of a magnificent creature, Cindy! 😯😍
So kind and much appreciated too!
I love the way you communicate with nature – and then share the beauty with us all. Lovely photography. And now I’m singing the song….
I wish I could add your song to the post <3
How beautiful! I can’t even begin to imagine how thrilling it must have been to see such a magnificent bird. His colors are so striking even though they are only black and white. You did a phenomenal job capturing him!
How come I am so very lucky to meet people like you? I am very grateful for this <3
Oh, Cindy! Thank you so much. I am so blessed to have met wonderful people such as you, too.
I don’t always have time to comment, but I so enjoy your blog and pictures.
Blessings, my friend~💖
I feel the same as you do on all counts, including not always having time to comment, so no worries <3
Cindy, I just had to come back and see these beautiful pictures again. I really like them!
Awww, touches my <3 ! Thank you~
You are welcome!
What an amazing bird. Don’t think I’d like to be caught in that hooked beak or its claws.
I can’t get over how clear and sharp your bird images are, Cindy.
I love raptors, but I am much bigger than them. So I can fully appreciate their lethality without being threatened by it. If they were bigger, or I was smaller, I would dig instantly into the earth, just like voles, and desperately hope I evaded them.
Great shots of this bird! Beautiful!
Love to you sweet friend <3 Hope all is good with you.
Gorgeous photographs, Cindy!
Ahhh, thank you so much <3
So cool!
Yes. Thank you for noticing. They are <3
Extraordinary photos, as always! Incredible the way you captured him staring!
Thank you very much. Wild animals and wild birds will stare into the lens of a camera not attached to a tripod, but to a human being. It’s odd, but it’s true.
I’ve seen ospreys in the strangest locations. Not that I’m complaining though, they’re some of my favorite birds.
Good for you. You are seeing. Seeing them in strange locations is such a testament to their ingenious survivability. I think they may be one of the most ubiquitous birds, present on the most continents.
Yes, they certainly are adaptable birds!
<3 <3
He is so amazing
Thank you so much. Yes he is <3
Quite the peacock, in a black and white way.
Gorgeous shots, Cindy!! ❦
Maybe he’s flattered you think he is a black and white peacock! Because he can see colors, better than you and I, and must be impressed with peacocks, if he’s seen them. He would probably eat a peacock, if it’s colors, and feathers fanned, weren’t so confusing.
Love to you Resa <3
Beautiful!
Thank & wonderful to meet you!
Wow! So beautiful!
Very pleased you enjoyed & lovely to meet you!
I am always amused how animals become nervous if you stare at them, Cindy. Even cats. I am sure that the osprey was a bit curious as well as disgusted, probably about the fact that you were disrupting its hunting routine!
It’s odd because they don’t like being stared at, but they seem fascinated by the camera lens and never see me without it attached to my face so maybe they think I am not human. Plus Herbert, our cat, stares intently in our eyes for the longest time. Our vet says his making direct eye contact is “unusual.”
Mmmm, bordering on steampunk with that camera attached to your face, Cindy. I’ve had birds perch on my lens.
I’ve stared down a few growling dogs in my day. 🙂 –Curt
These made me smile. I wonder if its sharp eyes can see its reflection in the lens?
Oh course, why didn’t I think of that! He was looking at his own reflection. We shall name him Narcissus! Are you home now, or still in Truckee?
Truckee, heading to visit my niece in Santa Cruz for the weekend. Fly out Tues. LOTS of snow in Truckee! Makes home look meager, but it is colder there. Spring won’t be too long now, however (hurrah).
How is Santiago?
Lots of epic snow! It’s wonderful, considering the horrid drought. My son says it is raining at The Holler, and more rain forecast.
My daughter and the twins are in Santa Cruz.
It is a small world.
I can’t wait to see your photos of the California poppies and am glad that worked out well.
We are in Mexico now, connect to Santiago on Saturday.
https://superduque777.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/0_a94_xl.jpg
Bellissima! Grazie mille.
Oh my ! 🙂 Gorgeous captures friend. 🐇
Thank you & be well.
You making it to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park right now? Wildflowers are supposed to be WILD. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638
I have flown away and will miss them, but I know it is going to be an historic bloom. The California Poppy bloom is historic and epic too, but I also missed that!
I would love to see both, darn it.
Fantastic photos of amazing birds – just beautiful!
Awww, honored, thank you & happy weekend!
Gorgeous Birds.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Visa versa 2UX2 awesome woman <3
Very big bird on the wire! 😉 Looks like after a fight. Thank you for sharing, Cindy. Have be beautiful weekend. Michael
Very kind and most appreciated Michael & cheers to you my friend!
OK, i know that from our former cats. They need eating grass against the hair from the fur.
Yes. I know just what you mean!
But, the Ospreys I see always seem disheveled, as if they had battled something they found hard to digest, so I understand completely what you are saying.
But really they are always this rumpled looknig. It seems almost like a disguise. To fool you into thinking they aren’t instantly ready to attack again.
What a lovely windblown Osprey!
I <3 my friends who <3 birds!
❤❤❤
There’s my Osprey! 😊 Just teasing, Cindy, your images are gorgeous! Boy, they can give some fierce stares at times, and they do keep their eye on us humans. I don’t blame them. 🙂
Yep, your osprey stoppedy by for a visit, so I could send you some photos proving he gets around! They as fierce as every raptor. People who own them, don’t posess them, they just cage and fly them. I think I love them as much as you do.
The look of that eyes goes through and through… That are breathtaking pictures, dear Cindy.
Yes, the term may be piercing. Raptor eyes are piercing and their vision blows my mind. When I find them with my super zoom lens, they are already staying intently at me with no super zoom capability. They are just amazing animals. Thank you so much for appreciating them.
Stunning!
Muchas gracias mi amiga <3
De nada mi amiga. ❤️
Late to this post: cracking shots, Cindy – as everyone else will already have said!
It’s lovely to hear it from you! Thank you <3
He’s got the look:)
He definitely has the “don’t tread on me look down pat!”
Fantastic closeups of an Osprey, the best I have seen!
Honored. Thank you very much!
That close-up of his cross-eyed wonderfulness is fantastic!
I don’t know when you’ll ever see this, what with all the comments, but I love your witty narrative with sequences such as this one with the beautiful osprey. You gave me a good chuckle.
beautiful
Grazie mille!
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Thank you!
What great photos and read. We live in an area of Osprey habitat and it is true, they do not pay much attention to us humans. This bird is an avid and successful hunter. I wrote a small blurb about what I thought of when I found a dead one on the beach. https://noelliesplace.com/2017/09/01/the-minds-eye/
Lucky you to live in osprey territory. We have a few Ospreys at The Holler too, but sightings are not regular. Magnificent birds!