Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

I had planned on making an entry on wildflowers yesterday and had taken quite a few photos while walking alongside the railroad tracks. Taking a moment though, to look at the river below while standing on the footpath of a railroad bridge, I saw an Osprey flying towards me.... immediate change of plans ...finally the right place, the right time!

Its amazing how huge and close these beautiful big birds seem to be when using a telescopic lens; its seems as if they're right upon you and more than once I have interrupted my picture taking and moved my eye away from the camera viewfinder to see how close the bird really was.

I have yet to chance upon the perfect light conditions for photographing Ospreys and often have to do quite a bit of photo editing to lighten and sharpen the details after downloading the pictures to my computer; as was the case yesterday. This could be considered a bit of an advantage though if I want to think positively about it, for I often like the picture quality achieved in these less than perfect conditions when sometimes the coarseness of the edited photo seems to project the roughness and wild strength of these impressive birds.