Rehoboth Beach (Prime Hook NWR)

This morning I drove up to PrimThis morning I drove up to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge . It was a gray day with periods of light rain. The light was actually great for photographing in the forest, but challenging shooting against the sky. However, the biggest challenge was the mosquitos. I had on three different kinds of repellent and it didn’t seem to faze them at all.

I was able to capture some colorful songbirds. However the draw was an osprey nest. This one was on a natural tree, not on a man-made platform like many in refuges. However, it was still pretty far away, even with a 500 lens and, as mentioned, silhouetted against a white sky. However the behavior was interesting, so I included some images that might not be technically perfect.

Several people mentioned they thought there were two chicks in the nest; I only ever saw one. The mom was, of course, continually fishing and bringing food and back to the nest. When the chick stood all the way up it was clear that it was almost as large as mom! But still not fledged, nor able to feed itself. At one point, I saw mom arrive at the next empty-clawed, and come away with a fish. She went to a nearby tree and clearly started breaking it down with her beak and claws. I can only imaging that the chick had not been successful in eating it whole. You can see the sequence of images below.

 Tomorrow I make the short trip up to Dover.

Additional images are found in the Gallery .