The WOW factor hits Fly Flatts. Osprey >SSW
Pursued by Lapwing.
1545 hrs at Fly Flatts with dark skies and a brisk WSW>5 bringing rain showers.
With wind surfers present I could see any waders were on the east bank to the north of the water so dismissed checking the SE corner which turned out to be a lucky move. As I started to walk on the south shoreline I got 3 Oystercatchers up calling followed by 2 Curlew then several Lapwings , very high and very agitated . Several LBB gulls joined in telling me something was going on. With the camera on manual mode and still yesterdays settings in I scanned through it skyward to immediately pick out an OSPREY !
It was moving high and fast just to the east of me so no time to reset the camera, it was just fire away and hope for the best. I could see in the view finder that I would have some sort of bloggable pictures so, rather than loose the bird, I carried on until it disappeared over the moor heading directly for Cold Edge Dams.
With the message sent out on the grapevine I got a call back from DJS who was near Cold Edge Dams but no sign of the bird.
It just shows how easy these sightings can be missed when I checked the log of events, 1550 hrs mobbing birds up in air, 1552 hrs Osprey located, 1553 hrs photos taken, 1554 hrs grapevine messaged relayed out. All over in 4 minutes but a memory for life.
Nice to talk to 3 windsurfers who saw the commotion but missed the Osprey, at least they can see it on my blog .
Never did get to check the waders but who cares!
BS