Osprey and Swallows return to Occoquan

Had a fun day today. Dozens of Osprey making their nests at the Occoquan NWR, as well as Swallows chasing each other all over the park.

Swallows:

#'s 1 and 3 are amazingly well done. The others are great, but the composition, action, sharpness, and overall feel of 1 and 3 just push them over the top as winners of the set.

They are all great shots but I especially like the swallows as I know how challenging they can be to capture.

i like the shots where the osprey look right at you.

Really like them all. But The first Swallow and the first Osprey are my fav's. Nice job!

Thanks a lot everyone. Those were my favorite two shots of the day as well

Don, you're definitely right about that. They were zipping all over the place. Very fast.

Nice captures, especially #1 & #3.
Rex

Pretty neat captures of some very acrobatic birds df!
I really like the 1st swallow capture where you almost got him frozen in space. Looks like he's braking because the other swallow is hollering at him -
The osprey images are all neat and great studies on how this raptor really uses all it's wing. I too like the first and the last the best as he looks like he's zeroed in on you.

I went out today looking for Osprey with nesting material. It looks like I should have headed north instead of east. Very nice.

Thanks Rex, Steve and Mike

Mike, you definitely would have had some success on the Occoquan. The Osprey dominated the sky most of the day. Lots of circling in groups overhead (at least a dozen) and we found 3 different sites where nests were being built within a quarter mile of each other. I don't know if all of them will stay put though because one was built directly above a hiking trail and they seemed pretty skittish whenever someone walked under the tree on the path.