Snapshots: Hangin’ out the Sheets with Eloise

Posted in Eastern Osprey, Werribee River ParkTagged ,

This gracious lady is currently settled in to the K Road Cliffs area at Werribee.  There is a horseshoe bend in the river and it obviously suits her fishing style. Not being a fishing sort of person, I don’t understand how the fish run up the estuary but suspect now, that it is more likely on the turn of the tide as the water flow out. Today that would have happend around sunup, and most likely she had hunted on the early morning light.
By  the time we, and 10 or so of our new close personal friends, rocked up after breakfast, she was well fed and/or the fish had gone as she showed little inclination for hunting.

However she did manage to make the photographers smile. On a tree close to the river edge, and in full sunlight.

So given an appreciative audience, she ran through the entire preening process, making sure every feather had a lick, and was back in the right place.  By 10:30 am, it was all over she packed up the sheets, took a long stretch and headed up river for her own reasons.

I thought I’d post a small selection, as I can quickly see that I am going to end up with days of work that don’t get sorted nor published.

So prepare for a few more blogs as the days progress.

Enjoy.

Hangin’ out the Sheets

One of my favourite activites with raptors is that ‘zipping’ up of the tail feathers.
A quick shake and all are back in place

 

After stiting in the hot sun for several hours she was panting and drooping out her wings
She is folding up the sheets, and I rather like the look of the power and depth of the wings shown here.
Time to turn around. A delicate process and a test of balance and wing work
A final big stretch of wings, tail, body and legs. It must be time to go

 

Feathers, feet and tail hard at work to regain equilibrium

 

7 thoughts on “Snapshots: Hangin’ out the Sheets with Eloise”

    1. Hi Derek, she is on a tree on the far side of the river so it not threatened. She did cross over for a short time, but I think the thronging crowd proved too much or the view wasn’t suitable, and she crossed back to the island area.
      We really could not have asked for better light.

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    1. Thanks David. Lucked out more than anything. I think the water is starting to bloom up, so hope we get a bit of rain to flush it through. Further upstream, it is quite the pea soup.

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