Reader Doug Hayes from Richmond, Virginia, sends us a batch of bird photos starring ospreys and herons. Doug’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicing on them.
A busy morning down by the Mayo Bridge section of the Richmond flood wall. The flood wall was designed to protect the city from flooding along the James River. The wall consists of a combination of earthen levees and a concrete flood wall stretching some 3.28 miles along the lowest lying section of the James. These photos were taken during the annual shad run when schools of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) migrate from the ocean into rivers to spawn, traveling upstream to their breeding grounds. Naturally, this attracts flocks of hungry ospreys and herons who take advantage of an easy breakfast.
An osprey (Pandion haliaetus) on the lookout for shad:
A great blue heron (Ardea herodias) patrols the flood wall, looking for a likely fishing spot:
Coming in for a landing:
A pair of herons squabble over a fishing spot:
“This river ain’t big enough for the both of us!”:
An osprey looking a bit miffed at having missed breakfast:
Heading for the trees with a nice catch:
Perching on top of the flood wall to dry out a bit:
Another miss and shaking some of the water from its feathers:
A heron snags breakfast. Actually, this bird picked an ideal fishing spot. I watched it snag seven fish while I was at the flood wall:
Another successful capture:
This osprey managed to snag two fish at once:
Taking off and looking as if it is walking on water:
A Canada goose (Branta canadensis) and its offspring cruise by:
Camera info: Sony A1 II mirrorless camera body, Sony FE 400-800 zoom lens + 1.4X teleconverter. All shots handheld
Around 15yrs ago in West VA I watched a blue heron fishing at the base of Blackwater Falls. I thought they were shore or coastal waterway birds so it was astonishing to me that a bird like that would wind up deep in the interior at ~3200 ft elevation.
Thanks for these excellent photos, Doug. The river looks a bit angry and muddy beneath the “two-fisted” osprey. An interesting aspect of the flood wall, if I recall correctly, about twenty or so years ago, it trapped a huge tropical storm downpour on the city-side giving rise to significant stormwater flooding in the Shockoe bowl as the rain could not drain into the river fast enough. At least that is what I recall.
Oh and though I have fished Hampton Roads and the lower James all my life, I had no idea that shad migrated the 75 miles upriver from my home in Newport News to Richmond.
The river was quite high when I went to the flood wall. We have had an unusually rainy spring and summer with the river remaining near flood stage for months. Closing the floodwall during the tropical storm in August 2004 trapped floodwater in the Shockoe Bottom area. I was working downtown then, and one of my co-workers and his wife attempted to drive through what looked like shallow water around Main and 17th Street. The water swept their car into a deeper area, coming to rest against a traffic sign. They were trapped for several hours before being rescued by emergency workers.
2004! I was assigned to a Capitol Square office for ten months in 2007 and my colleagues described that view. I recall a mark about nine feet up on the wall on the first floor of a Shockoe Bottom restaurant that said “Gaston” I think. Those are pretty steep streets so water would get deep really fast. Glad your friends survived!
Wow, these are a delight – and a stunning osprey photo – frame it!
Incredible pictures. When I was a teenager, my father and I often went fishing at dusk along the Tioughnioga River in upstate New York. Great Blue Herons patrolled the river looking for food. In the dim light, we imagined we were in a prehistoric scene peopled by pterodactyls.
Interestingly, a local stream here in the Pacific Northwest—the Sammamish River—contains American Shad. They were introduced here at some point and are a little known denizen of our river. I haven’t caught one yet, but a fly fisherman I talked to recently said that he had caught four in one day. Hope springs eternal. If I catch one, I’ll return it to the water to live another day.
There. I did it. I achieved my long term goal of using Tioughnioga and Sammamish in the same post.
Beautiful shots!
So much content, so little time. Great photos. I’ve been fortunate to be in a place with a lot of herons and osprey, so I’ve seen actions shown except for herons squabbling. It’s cool to see an osprey take a good sized fish and turn it once it gains goo fligh so the fish body & head is directed in in the same alignment as the bird.
That’s a great picture of the blue heron in flight. I didn’t realize that they fold up their necks so compactly when they take to the air. You wouldn’t even know they have necks, never mind such long ones, if you never saw them on the ground.
Very good! I hope that Osprey gets its meal.
Lovely photos. I enjoyed them. Thank you!
Great pictures!
Thanks!
The shad create some nice avian drama. Thanks for the very cool captures.
Thank you, Doug; always appreciate your images. Also, they give me a tug of nostalgia for my home state.
Love these. Is that Jesus’s pet heron walking on the water?
The one with the two fish is the best. Awesome photos. Thanks.