SUMMER WITH THE OSPREYS
I SEE YOU!
This summer (2026) I spent weeks watching one osprey family from egg to fledgling, and it turned into one of my favorite photography projects yet. I first found the nest in late June, when the female was still tucked low, barely visible above the rim of sticks. By July, two chicks had hatched, and the transformation happened almost daily — downy gray puffballs one week, gangly and feathered the next, testing their wings against the edge of the nest.
The real payoff came when the adults started fishing in earnest to keep up with two growing appetites. I logged hours at the water's edge waiting for that moment of impact — the plunge, the spray, and the powerful upstroke as the osprey rose with a fish gripped in its talons, reoriented headfirst for the flight home. Unfortunately, most of their fishing occurred out of sight or too far to capture. Watching the chicks perch nearby, then finally take those first clumsy flights themselves, gave the whole series a real narrative arc: dependent, awkward, and eventually confident birds in their own right.
A few fun facts about osprey: they're one of the few raptors that plunge feet-first into water to catch prey, sometimes submerging completely before flying off with a fish that can weigh up to 4 pounds. Their outer toe is reversible, letting them grip with two toes forward and two back, which helps them carry slippery fish aerodynamically, head-first, to reduce wind resistance in flight. Osprey have a nearly worldwide distribution, breeding on every continent except Antarctica, and a single breeding pair will often reuse and rebuild the same nest for years, adding new material each season until it can weigh several hundred pounds.
