As we have been doing once or twice a week for the past couple of months, we went out yesterday to do some fishing. We also took my son-in-law’s black lab out for a run and to go swimming. After a couple of very hot days, first 108 F then 102 F, the day was cooler; about 84 F.
Every time we go out, we know that we are going to see some critters, but we never know which will grace us with their presence. This time, we got to see an osprey and a coyote, in slightly different locations but both from a distance of about 100 feet.
Osprey surveying us
We saw the osprey first, perched on a phone pole. This was on our way out to the fishing hole. He is very aware that we were there and was watching us intently. From this perch, he's a short distance from the river and our initial thought was that he had been watching the river for fish. Ospreys are masters at fishing and if he saw one, he'd have swooped down, caught it, and returned to the perch to eat it.
From the other side of the pole
This is the same osprey, but the picture is from the other side of the pole. The distance is a little bit greater, but again, he seems to be watching the river. As we were to learn, initial perceptions can be wrong.
The image is a little dim because of the brightness of the sky. The picture was taken using a cell phone, which automatically dimmed the image as the picture was taken.
Fished not fishing
Is it a fish?
Zoomed in
Dinner to go
Apparently, the osprey tired of us watching it eat, so it decided to eat out. It flew away with its fish. The image is just good enough to notice two things. First, the fish is missing its head, which the osprey has probably already eaten. Second, the osprey is displaying the way ospreys always carry fish while in flight; head first. It is an amazing thing, but no matter how they catch a fish and which direction a fish is when it is plucked out of the water, ospreys always align it so the fish is carried with the head in front and the tail behind. This helps the bird carry even a wiggling fish that weighs a lot more than the osprey does.
Coyote beautiful
On the way back from fishing and only about a mile from where we saw the osprey, we spotted this little guy, on the other side of the fence that was just off the road. When I say little, I mean it. This coyote is a youngster and was probably born this year. It is quite small yet and is about the size of a fox. My guess is that it was about half of the normal adult size.
The young coyote was obviously looking for mice and it wasn't being too successful because the coyote was underweight.
A little closer
Posing for us
This is the closest picture we took of the coyote. The distance is about 40 feet. When this picture was taken, it actually stopped where it was and stood still as if it was posing for us. More likely, it heard a mouse and was momentarily distracted, so it probably took a moment to try to zero in on the sound.
Where we went fishing
The coyote and the osprey were seen when we went fishing at this spot on the Clark Fork River. We didn't catch any fish, but we really didn't care and my daughter and I just wanted to get out for a short time. It was also quite windy, with the wind moving from the left to the right in this image. This made it difficult to cast with ultra-light gear. This is why the water doesn't have a calm, clear appearance.
Would love to see these in person. I watch live webcams a lot.
We have a LOT of Ospreys around here. :))