Hi readers, I’m honoured to have been asked to contribute a photo and a few words each week on a subject I am passionate about…birds.
Yep! Like a lot of you I am a bona-fide bird-nerd. I am also an equally passionate photographer of all things furred or feathered.
This week we spotlight the magnificent Osprey. Up and down the Similkameen these birds have been returning to their old established nests, some of which can be easily seen on purposely-built platforms atop telegraph poles and marina pilings.
The pair pictured returned to Princeton two weeks ago, and got straight down to repairing their nest after the ravages of winter.
Osprey lay two to four eggs, though a single chick may often only survive. The parents invest about four months raising their young.
The Ospreys diet consists almost entirely of fish, and they haul in hundreds of them from the rivers they nest by.
The cooler autumn weather will see these birds depart once again, heading for South America, and so the cycle repeats.
The Osprey is a unique bird and the only member of the family Pandionidae. It is found all around the world and only the Peregrine Falcon is more widely distributed.