Yesterday my dad texted me and asked if I wanted to go look for birds later. I quickly responded and told him that I did if our schedules lined up. And they lined up perfectly. I had time to go to the pool and get my swim in for triathlon training. Then after my swim I went and picked up my dad so we could go birdwatching.

My dad recently told me he had seen a Great Egret down at the river. So we went over to the Chemung river to look for one. We stood along the flood walls right in town and peered down into the river. This is a perfect spot for birding and photography because I can lean on the wall and rest my arms from holding my large and heavy birding lens.

We quickly spotted our quarry. And they slowly stalked the low water areas amongst the rocks. Picking around and nabbing mostly objects we could not readily see. It was interesting to see the Egret this time of year. Mostly we see them at the end of the summer or early fall in this area.

As we watched and talked I told my dad that I was glad he asked me to join him because it got me out doing something that I always say I want to do more but never find myself actually getting out to do. Most of the last several years has involved my dad telling me about all the cool bird sightings he has had down at the Chemung River and surrounding areas and me saying that I really need to get out more so that I can see them too and then never actually doing it.

When we found the Great Egret it was bright and sunny. The Egret’s bright white feathers and the dark rocks of the river bed created a lot of contrast. So I set my camera to under expose the image by 1 stop so that I could preserve the details in the Egret’s feathers and they wouldn’t get blow out. And that worked out pretty good. There are even times where the sunlight is reflecting off the water and back up onto the Egret, and you can see the rippling effect of light off the water shining on the bird’s feathers.

We also saw one Osprey fly down along the river not too far from their nest. And eventually we spotted an Osprey perched on the end of a dead tree that was hanging over the dam. I don’t have many photos of Osprey perched on anything other than their nest platforms. This was a nice environmental shot of the river and one of its inhabitants.

After we had watched the river for a while we headed to Eldridge Park. This is one of the favorite hunting grounds for the Osprey and Bald Eagles in our area. They can often be spotted here. It is also a great spot for migratory water fowl. It is a good spot for spotting many of the birds that are common to this area. We sat on one of the park benches by the small lake and talked, but no significant bird action, so we moved on.

We went over to a different spot along the Chemung River to check out an Osprey nest. This nest has been there for a while now, but I have never managed to go and see it until now. So, I am glad that my dad wanted to go take a look.

When we arrived there was one Osprey on the nest. We could not see any young Osprey in the nest, however even though many of the nests in the area have young that are making themselves visible these days. The lone Osprey was calling and calling. Constantly. They had a bit of an unusual call too. It got very raspy and hoarse sounding as it trailed off.

They seemed to be calling for their mate to return with some food. We watched and waited. Simultaneously photographing the lone Osprey and waiting to see if they did anything interesting while we watched the skies around us for the return of the other Osprey. They can show up quickly seemingly out of nowhere.

Eventually and seemingly out of nowhere the Osprey’s mate returned. I didn’t spot them until they were flying straight towards the nest. And they did indeed have a fish they had caught. They looked like they were going to fly right to the nest and deliver their catch to their mate, but at the last second they veered off and loop back around the way they had come. They flew to the other side of the river and perched in a tree. Presumably to eat some of their catch before giving it to their mate. But on further examination of the photos, they had already eaten some of the fish they returned with. The photos clearly showed a fish with no head.

In this photo I think the mate who was holding down the forte at the nest looks pissed that their partner did not immediately drop their fish off at the nest.

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