A month after a previous visit, I stopped by an osprey nest on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake.
On July 19, I took this picture of an Osprey mother and her two chicks.
On August, 20, I took a picture of the same family. Now, the chicks (on the left) are much older and larger. Their plumage has evolved, and they are almost ready to fly.
I managed a satisfying shot comparing adult and chick. The adult, left, has yellow eyes and brown wing feathers. Its chick, right, has orange eyes, and wing feathers that look as if they have been dipped in cream.
The latter two pictures were taken on the same jaunt as was the chick surrounded by yellowjackets.
oh I would have liked the detail about the eyes for my soon-to-be-published column on the osprey juveniles I watched at the Balfour public dock. Thank you Alistair!
Re Juvenile Ospreys. Is there any significances about the difference in eye color.or
Is this just the lighting angles or maybe diff between male and female??
Wes, the colour characterizes neither sex nor lighting—just age. All juvenile ospreys have orangish eyes. I have taken many pictures of it. See, for example, last year’s posting, riveting orange.
Or this picture of a juvenile osprey from a few years ago:
Have seen and heard ospreys in late summer circling overhead with their young, calling out almost as if they were teaching the young some skill. Perhaps the young are returning the calls, I do not know. This is over the neighbourhood and not necessarily over the Columbia river here at Castlegar. I wonder what this behaviour means, the only time I have seen/heard it is in late summer about the end of August. It is quite dramatic to hear the calls and see the ospreys circling.