In December last year, I shared a picture of a bald eagle carrying a fish it had just caught from the Susquehanna River below Conowingo Dam in Harford County, Maryland. It has been my experience over the past few years that there are more eagles at Conowingo in November and December than other times of the year. On July 1, I took a ride to Conowingo Dam to see if there were any eagles around. I spent two hours there and heard a few eagles from time to time, but I didn’t see any.
What I did see fishing in the river were ospreys. There were at least three of them, and they were flying above the water and occasionally diving to get a fish. Bald eagles that I’ve seen catching fish in the river will drop their talons and swoop down toward the water at a rather steep angle, picking the fish from the water with their talons. An osprey, on the other hand, dives right into the water grabbing the fish with its talons. In this photo, the osprey is turning after coming out of the water with the fish.
As I was getting ready to leave, I finally saw a bald eagle fly overheard. It flew toward the river and chased away one of the ospreys.
THE METHOD: Nikon D6 camera with a Nikon 600mm f-4 lens. Shutter speed was 1/2000 of a second with an aperture of f-6.3 and the ISO was 1250.
Through the Viewfinder is a weekly feature by LNP | LancasterOnline photographers exploring the art of black-and-white and color photography.