Osprey Independence Day
Date: June 22nd 2024.
This was my fourth visit to Horn Mill trout farm near Rutland, to photograph Ospreys this year.
As previously described the Hide sits orientated looking south down the length of what was a large trout pond. Elsewhere there are eight other trout ponds and this is a working trout farm, hence the early and late sessions in the Hide to avoid the core working hours.
I had high hopes for this session, as the forecast was clear with sunshine through until mid morning, and a light wind west east. The wind direction is key as the Ospreys preferred to dive and then takeoff into the breeze. The worst you can have is a breeze from the south, as that means many more photographs of Osprey tailfeathers.
My object of returning again, was still looking for a couple of competition worthy photographs of Osprey, on the level of those I took last year.
The challenge is always to catch the Osprey is in their dive before they hit the water. They either dive from the sky, or more likely at from in a tree to the side of the pond. They do not dive in a straight line, they tend to adjust the, direction of the dive and the angle that they approach the water mid dive, this makes them very hard to follow. Also the background when they are diving a trees and then long grasses around the water, which makes it hard for the cameras to identify and easily follow the Osprey in the dive. Once they hit the water, you have a good chance of tracking the bird as it comes out of the water and flying away. And this is when I’ve had my previously best results.
What happened today, there was a total absence of Ospreys. I didn’t even see one flyover, scouting the pond. This was the first time in my total of eight visits last year and this, where there has been a no-show. There were the usual herons around the pool, but only saw one fish taken in the four hours I was there between the four herons present. Partway through the morning , a Kingfisher did arrive, sat on the stick, dived and took two fish. I managed to get some nice photographs of the Kingfisher stunning, fish against the tree branch and then spinning the fish around prior to swallowing it.
I had previously set the cameras up using the auto focus range limiter. I sent this from about the third way down the trout pond to just short of the far end of the trout pond. This would help the camera focus more quickly and accurately on the bird as it would only try to focus within that short and distant limit. This could be easily overridden if I pressed the, bird subject priority button, however with no Ospray showing up, I didn’t have the chance to try this.
Further to my last visit, I see a trend that this year there are less Osprey diving at the Trout farm. In total across four visits this year I’ve seen seven dives. Last year I also attended four times, and saw 18 dives.
No one I have spoken to Has come up with a theory as to why.
I will return!
