I LOVE raptors. Osprey are amazing hunters when it comes to fishing and I have seen it live while hawk watching (yes I love raptors that much). My favorite raptor is the Peregrine Falcon hands down. We had some nesting in my city and I was able to get close to them on the top floor to our high rise and see them out the window. Such amazing birds.
Another cool thing about the Osprey is the size of their nests which can become huge because they often use the nest year after year and just keep adding to it.
Thanks for posting this.
As for peregrine falcons, I recently had the pleasure of watching one "disturb" a bunch of waterfowl at a desert marsh recently. I knew it was there too even before I saw it. Once it's spotted by all the local birds (such as yellow-headed blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, and assorted duck species), the entire marsh lets out a "collective scream," so to speak.
It's hilarious. You know something is horribly wrong and then you look up and see what's causing all the commotion. Invariably, it's a peregrine falcon, or as I like to call it -- a waterfowl's worst nightmare!
Raptors are really the only birds I care much about. I’ve seen Peregrines do pretty much what that osprey did down on Padre Island, diving into the surf and in a couple of strokes they are airborne, shaking off the water, and then back into full flight.
About the only hawks I can easily identify are red-tails, I’ve never figured out how to know what the rest of them are. And harriers, they are pretty easy to ID. Kestrels and Merlins are sweet to watch when they are in the area, typically in winter.
Can’t put my finger on why exactly, but I love birds of prey. They live at the top of the food chain on such a thin margin of superiority, but I love them. The little woman and I will be out doing errands and I’ll see a pair, way up in the sky, and Susan will say “what are you looking at?”
I see birds.