Osprey in a flap

Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Description

Taken at an early morning session with Aviemore Ospreys, Gordon Macleod.  Gordon has dedicated his time over the years to developing a site suitable for photographing ospreys fishing from the comfort of a hide with no disturbance to the birds. Gordon has you all set up in the hide ready to photograph at 5am.  Conditions are normally pretty dark at this time and as the birds like to fish early so a camera with good ISO capabilities is a must to ensure a fast enough shutter speed.   Gordon keeps you right and informs you when a osprey is approaching his pond to fish via a walkie talkie.  So you have to stay sharp and keep your eye on it as it gives no warning when it drops like a speeding bullet and dives into the pond hopefully with a trout in it’s talons.  A few seconds and it is all over, it gives you quite an adrenaline rush which makes it rather addictive.

You can find out more about booking a session at Aviemore Ospreys with Gordon Macleod.

You can also find out more about the ospreys that fish in Scotland and the work that the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation does with the osprey through the use of satellite tracking.