Osprey Sighting

On Saturday I went for a walk because it was a lovely day.  I saw a couple of loons on the lake as I walked, and wished I had taken my camera, but I don't really like taking the camera for exercise walks because it's too cumbersome.  As I neared home, I saw a large bird of prey slowly flying overhead, and then I noticed it was holding something.  I wasn't sure, but I thought it had a fish (from the same lake where the loons were, most likely).  At that point, I realized that it was probably an osprey.

The osprey went over my head and then settled on a nearby utility pole to begin devouring the meal.  I ran (well, I jogged...well, I kind of walk-jog-walk-jogged) to the house to get the camera in the hope that I could get home, get the camera and run back to the pole before the fish was gone and the bird had flown.  It was the end of my walk and I was already a bit tired, but I put in the effort so that I could try to catch a few good photographs of this wonderful bird.

As you will see from the pictures below, I wasn't disappointed!  He saw me coming, but he didn't seem disturbed by my presence because he kept eating his meal with gusto.

Chow down!

I was very glad to have such a good zoom lens and the ability to crop these pictures and still have decent images.  I think, given my burst of energy, my hands were shaking a bit.

He did look at me from time to time as he ate.

Maybe he thought I would make a good dessert? 

I also managed to get a picture showing the stripes under his tail feathers that are characteristic of the osprey.

I was so excited to have the opportunity to watch, and photograph, such a majestic and captivating bird.  An unexpected bonus as a result of going for my walk!

The Weekend Roundup: F

This weekend's prompts from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with F, Flower, and Favourite.

Starts with F

Fish starts with F.  We recently joined a weekly delivery program for a sustainable seafood company called Afishionado (yes, the spelling is correct!)  Each week, we receive a pound of a sustainably-fished species of fish from Canada, most often locally fished.  We get information on the name of the fishing boat, the method of catch (mostly line caught for sustainability), and the captain of the vessel.  I like supporting local businesses and environmentally sound fishing practices, so it's a win-win for us!  This week's fish is albacore tuna, and right now it is marinating in an orange ginger soy marinade.  

It will make a lovely supper.  Other fish we've had recently from this program include smoked mackerel, cod, and steelhead trout.  

Flower

Tom sure was posing a challenge for northerners with this prompt!  There aren't any flowers to bee seen in my snowy landscape.  The best I could come up with is this little flower on my indoor rosemary plant that sits on my windowsill.  Not very big but still, it is a flower.

Until at least May, that's all the flowers I'll be seeing around here except for this lovely print on my kitchen wall, a gift some years ago from my parents.

Favourite

I recently finished knitting this cute little mouse - definitely one of my favourite knitted items so far!  It was good practice for me on the colourwork part of his sweater.  Here he is inspecting some of this week's eggs.  A number of people commented last week that they hadn't seen an egg skelter before.  I think that is probably because in North America, for the most part, people keep their eggs in the fridge, whereas in other parts of the world, they are kept at room temperature.  North American eggs are washed, which removes the protective surface coating, therefore requiring them to be refrigated.  In some countries, it is illegal to commercially sell washed eggs because the coating protects from bacteria and they are considered safer when unwashed.  In any event, it's a useful item if you keep your eggs on the counter, as I do!  Here's some more information on the history of egg washing and chilling:  https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt