Posts Tagged ‘osprey’

Bonus Photo: Osprey in the Chinese Gardens

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Yesterday, a fel­low Grinnellian and friend of a friend (and now just friend) Dan met us at the Chinese Gardens and gen­er­ously paid for our admis­sion within. As the ticket taker took our tick­ets, he said, “If you hurry to the bridge, you can see the osprey.” I was a lit­tle star­tled by this, because the Chinese Gardens are really out of place.” They’re in Downtown Portland, at the edge of Chinatown, and you just don’t expect to see their ver­dant grounds, let alone a beau­ti­ful bird like this.

As promised, the osprey was perched on one of the curved roof pieces on the pagoda over­look­ing the pond. It was clear that it was look­ing for a meal, but a nearby scrub jay was not pleased with the predator’s pres­ence. Repeatedly, the jay dive-​​bombed a bird ten times its size, then flit­ted back into the heavy brush of a tree. The osprey looked around star­tled each time, unsure of what was hap­pen­ing. After about five min­utes of this, it gave up and flew away. I’m always stunned by the wingspan of these birds. Unfortunately, it didn’t fly in a direc­tion con­ducive to a good move­ment shot. But I have this shot to remem­ber it by.

Bonus Photo: Osprey in the Chinese Gardens

Photowalk: Coyote Ridge

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Located 15 min­utes south of Fort Collins, Coyote Ridge is a nat­ural area con­sist­ing if a cou­ple hun­dred acres of prairie. A trail runs from the road up across sev­eral ridges. Today, I walked to the base of the sec­ond ridge before com­ing back. I’ll make the full hike to the end some time in the future.

The weather today was over­cast and gloomy, so my cam­era was strain­ing with the avail­able light. Still, I took a few nice pho­tos. Here’s the walk from start to fin­ish, with nar­ra­tion and sev­en­teen pho­tos:

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