Osprey Marsh

One day last month, Frank and I drove over to a place just a few minutes from my home called Osprey Marsh.

We'd heard about it before but had never been there. The day was overcast, and a storm seemed like a possibility, so we didn't venture too far from where we parked, just in case. We were armed with our respective cameras, lenses and a backpack which carried water and a light lunch if we were lucky enough to avoid bad weather.

We wandered the area, and though we didn't see any Osprey, for which the marsh is named, we did see a few birds and other things, in the hour or so that it took us to explore.

As we approached the marsh, we saw a Great Blue Heron fishing. It's a sight we see often but it was his catch that was most impressive. He had his back to us for a short while and we could see that he had a rather large fish in his bill. Frank, being the astute and knowledgeable fisherman that he is (he wrote the book, after all), knew what it was at a glance.

Just before he flew off with his catch, the heron turned toward us and confirmed Frank's call. He had a huge Brown Bullhead Catfish. He carried it a short distance away and enjoyed his meal.

We looked for, but didn't see any frogs among these lovely lily pads, but the water lily was certainly worth stopping for and admiring.

Nearby, a family of mallards wandered past. The young appeared to be maturing toward adulthood - probably teenagers.

And further down the shoreline, Mother and Father Goose kept watchful eyes as their five goslings took a nap on the beach.

Frank focused on this snail with his camera, and I decided to snap a shot of it with my own. I'm sure he has a similar image somewhere on his hard drive.

On our way out toward the car, we saw these lovely mini orchids or iris-like flowers. They were quite tiny.

The weather held out long enough for us to find a bench, and munch on a few of the goodies we'd packed. We headed for home after lunch. When we were seconds away from the car, the rain began.

Sometimes, these things work out just perfectly.