I hope their nesting was successful and that they raised a healthy brood of chicks. If I'm ever in that area again, I'm going to make sure to look at the right side of the road!
Ospreys at the Beach
Five months after my osprey encounter in Bryce Canyon National Park, I had a chance to watch an osprey hunting for fish at Malibu Lagoon State Beach, California. It is one of my favorite bird-watching spots. Where Malibu Creek meets the ocean, a section of sand has formed an inland body of water. In this lagoon, brown pelicans, double-crested cormorants, great and snowy egrets, and numerous terns and gulls forage for fish and other items of food all day long.
It was there that I spied an osprey flying in a wide circle. It flapped its wings a few times, then soared as it turned around the bay like a plane preparing to land. When it came close enough to the water to get a good view of things, it dove in after a fish.
While I was watching, the osprey came up empty a few times. But then he suddenly snatched a fish from the bay and flew off, clutching the catch in his talons.
Mathew Tekulsky writes a regular column about birding in his backyard and neighborhood in Bel Air, California. You can follow his encounters with the birds of the Santa Monica Mountains here on National Geographic News Bird Watcher every fortnight or so.
Previous columns by the Birdman of Bel Air
Birding Column: Stalking a Great Blue Heron
Birding Column: House Wrens' Twice-a-Minute Feeding Frenzy
New Bird-Watching Column: "The Birdman of Bel Air"
The California Towhee, Boldly Bland
At Home With Hooded Orioles
Scrub Jays Go Nuts for Peanuts
Northern Mockingbird is a Wary Neighbor
Christmas With the Pelicans
California-Quail Close Encounter
Yosemite Steller's Jay Encounter
Banding Birds at Devils Postpile
California Condor Close Encounter
California Condor Rebound
Going Nuts With Wilderness Ravens
Hummingbird Chicks Fly the Nest
Mexican Jays' Dogged Pack Mentality
National Geographic BirdWatcher
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