Heading into May chaseless...may as well go with what you know: EAGLES and OSPREY

Hard to believe April 9th and 10th really even happened. Since then we have been dealing with temps running a good 15 to 20 degrees BELOW NORMAL pretty much on a daily basis. Needless to say convection has been non-existent and snow has fallen on several occasions instead. Up at my mom's place in Fergus Falls, MN, they have had a snowfall to cover the ground to some extent in each of the past 8 MONTHS. Unbelievable. At least the GFS is showing a glimmer of hope and with a little luck the jet won't suddenly leap into Canada leaving us with a very sucky storm season. It took until June in 2010 before all hell broke loose up here but with the devastating April across the south tornado-wise, I am confident MN will not defend it's title for the most torns in the nation in 2011.

So, the camera was needing some attention and I have been sitting around the house way more than usual for this time of year so put the 50-500 back on and went out in search of raptors. My goal was try to determine if any of the eaglets have hatched yet on the 3 eagle nests closest to home.



The Lake Constance nest definitely has at least one eaglet hatched. The female would keep adjusting how she was sitting and looking down. Tell tale sign of at least one fuzzball in there.



The Lake Mary nest does not have much hope. This female was very antsy and nor did I see her sitting on the nest when she should have been back in March. I have not seen the male at all this spring so I am afraid something may have happened to him.



Otter Lake has eggs yet. She wasn't moving for anything. Just sitting still and doing the incubation thing.



Wood ducks and a mallard cruising through the pond weed.



A turkey vulture silhouetted against the 35 degree sky on May 1st.



Need some hawk help on this one. VERY big. Was cruising over a pheasant farm. Morph redtail?

OK...onto the best part of the day. Decided to also see if any of the osprey nesting platforms are active yet near Clearwater Lake. The first two were quiet. As I was driving to a third, I thought I saw a red fox along a fence line but it turned out to be just some brush which was the right color a couple of hundred yards away. However, this guy was devouring a fish out in the stubble field right in front of me!





A bad feather day in the winds gusting to near 40 mph.



Oh boy, saw this coming as he leaned forward into the wind.



Ever wonder why an osprey is so good at hanging onto a fish? Man, check out those talons!



He flew up to a power pole almost right over head then gives me the "what the hell are you looking at??" glare! Kind of a cool way to wrap up the day.



In the meantime will keep an eye on this system for next weekend. I would very much like to go back to being a stormchaser again very soon.