According to my Lightroom catalog, it's been over 2-1/2 years since I pointed a camera at a bird. I just didn't feel like snapping any pics. A recent upgrade to a 50D made me change my mind, and I headed up to Damariscotta, Maine, to catch the ospreys diving after the alewives climbing the fish ladder.
It was not very productive, thanks to the lack of ospreys. I think this scarcity was due to the weekend fund-raising festival the locals held to repair the fish ladder. I think that 60 or 70 people having a pig roast scared the ospreys away for a while. I spent 12 or 14 hours at the ladder over 3 days, and saw only 3 ospreys dive into the water.
The first time I went to Damariscotta I saw 3 ospreys dive in the first 15 minutes.
This past trip was a bit depressing, but I made the best of it, and shot a lot of gulls in flight for practice. I should have shot a lot more gulls, but that gets tiring, and shooting a gull in flight is not the right practice for shooting an osprey diving. It helps, but apparently not enough since I missed every osprey dive shot.
I did manage to get a few osprey just flying around, but I'm quite rusty, and need some more practice.
It was good to get out shooting again. It wasn't ideal, but a bad day shooting ospreys is better than a good day at work.
