Taking Flight

This week I decided to give myself a little bit of time and take my time on my way to a job in Salem, OR. I work a lot in Salem, and living in Portland, I get tired of taking the same I-5 south every time I have to head down that way. So, occasionally, I like to mix it up a little bit.

On this particular day in the last week of April 2013, I decided to take the OR Highway 99w Southwest out of Portland, toward McMinnville. Just shy of McMinnville is a little town called Dayton. You can catch Highway 221 South out of Dayton and head to Salem in about 20 minutes. Just after leaving Dayton, OR, I saw a huge nest sitting on a telephone pole with an Osprey standing guard. That was pretty exciting! I didn’t have time right then to stop, so I took a survey of the landmarks and marked the next mile post, mental note created.

That afternoon, after completing my job for the day I left Salem and head back home. I take the same exact route, my mental note told me what mile post I was looking for. I parked the truck along the road a little distance away from the nest. I didn’t want to spook her sitting there. I was close enough to see that she was there. I got out and start creating images. I slowly walk closer and closer to the nest, creating images every couple steps. Finally, though not intentional, I get close enough to spook her, she takes off. She doesn’t fly off very far. I was still able to continue getting some good images.

I heard her cawing, but then realize, what a minute, I’m looking right at her through my camera, but I don’t see her beak moving? It was at about the same time that a giant shadow passes over me. I look away from my camera, and up. There’s another huge Osprey flying around, checking me out. It didn’t take long before this new bird probably assesses that I’m not a threat and flies off. So my focus went back to the female still sitting on the pole.

I walk closer until I spook her again, she takes flight and I get some images of her flying over and around me. It was about 20 minutes into the session that decide I’ve had enough for today and head back to the car. But wait! Turns out the male was busy from a couple minutes ago when I saw him flying over me. He comes flying back to the nest with some kind of rodent in it’s claws. He sees me still hanging around and detours away to fly the safe route. He flies around the long way and then back to the nest. By then the female had made her way back too. I watch them both enjoy lunch.

I hope you like these 5 images this week. Please share with your friends and leave comments.