These awesome raptors have returned to the Colorado Front Range and are busily setting up their homes for mating season. Last weekend I checked out this spot that was vacant the week before and found the male and female had finally arrived.

While the male wasn’t too interested in doing anything exciting, the female was quite active. At one point, she departed, disappeared down into an old, dry lakebed, and emerged with some building materials for the pair’s home.

In recent years, this nest has not had any luck successfully fledging young. Hopefully that will change in 2021.

That is what I imagined this beautiful osprey was thinking yesterday as it seemed to be a bit annoyed with me. 😉

Knowing these awesome raptors were returning to the Colorado Front Range for the season, I ventured out to try to get my first photos of the season of them. With how early it is, they were few and far between and usually too far away but this one was kind enough to give me some nice poses.

While it looks annoyed, it wasn’t really upset with my presence as it pretty much ignored me and continued its watch, undoubtedly awaiting the arrival of its mate.

Osprey can be found across much of North and South America, only staying year-round in Florida and the Baja California area. Winters are spent in South America and along the Gulf Coast while they summer in the northern third of North America. Some will migrate 5000 miles to their summer homes.

In the coming months I am sure I will have many more photo opportunities with them.

I kind of like the pose here and, in particular, the nice look at those impressive talons it provides.

It is about time to bid farewell to this summer time visitor to Colorado. Very soon they will be beginning their migration to the Gulf Coast and South America.

This was the female at a nest stand not too far north of me. Unfortunately, she and her mate were not successful in having any offspring this year, the second year in a row the nest has failed. Hopefully if they or another pair return to the same spot next year, they will have better luck.

Such a beautiful lady and an impressive pose and landing. It had been a while since I had checked on my favorite osprey nest site so I stopped by a couple weeks ago.

While I didn’t get pictures of it, I did catch a very brief glimpse of at least on young osprey down in the nest bowl. As this pair has historically not had success, this is good to see. I’ll have to get back up there soon to check on them as any young ones should easily be visible now.

Just a bit of an amusing image to brighten your Monday. 😉

Normally raptors will “lighten the load” before taking off. This female osprey though decided it would be more efficient to just do it in flight.

A new osprey that has taken to hanging out not far from where I live. A few years ago the county put up a nest stand along the South Platte River. Unfortunately, it has remained unoccupied with none of these hawks showing any interest.

A couple weeks ago I noticed an osprey hanging out at the stand pretty regularly. I walked into it recently, wanting to get a better look. As he finished up breakfast, he gave me some nice poses then went for a quick flight – seen here soon after launch.

This is a male osprey and he continues to hang out alone. As he appears to have chosen this spot for a home a month or two late, he isn’t likely to attract a mate this season. However, I hope he returns next year – with a pretty lady friend.

On my most recent visit to my favorite osprey stand, things were pretty standard fare. The male was perched alongside the nest, keeping watch, while the female laid inside of it, presumably on eggs.

The handsome fellow gave me some nice shots as he posed and did some flybys. She apparently decided it was time to take a break and hopped up and took flight, making one, quick circle of the nest, then returned to her spot and resumed her caretaker duties.

She looked beautiful in the morning sun and this capture really does a nice job showcasing their plumage and 5+ foot wingspan. I would guess there would soon be little ones although with the nest 25 feet off the ground, it will be a while before I am able to see them.

It occurred to me this morning that despite having taken a bunch of pictures of these cool raptors in recent weeks, I have only shared one pic of them! Let’s fix that today.

This capture is from a couple of weeks ago at a nest stand in northern Colorado. A mated pair of osprey have been busy establishing their summer home.

This particular spot is one of my favorites for osprey because few people know about this nest. I can go there and spend hours just hanging out and watching the birds go about their lives without other people intruding.

Here, the female returns to the nest after performing a short flight. However, she was coming in way too fast and wasn’t able to slow down enough to grab her perch. It is a cool shot showcasing their impressive 5+ foot wingspan and, of course, those impressive talons.

Whoohoo! Another summer resident of Colorado returns to the plains.

One good thing about my photography is that social distancing is pretty much built in as I go where few do anyway. I knew the osprey were going to be back and I was able to spend this morning with multiple couples as they worked on setting up their summer homes at a couple locations.

This handsome fellow disappeared for a time and returned a bit later with the catch of the day.

You’ll notice how the osprey carries its prey parallel to its body. That of course makes for great aerodynamics and they are the only raptor I am aware of to do this. They also have the capability to swivel one of their front toes to the rear giving them two in front, two in back when carrying their catch thus providing a very secure hold.

These impressive raptors are technically part of the hawk family but they are much larger than most of their family members. With a wingspan pushing close to 6 feet across, they truly are impressive. Then of course you have that plumage which is absolutely gorgeous.

This particular female was returning from a flight in northern Colorado when I caught her in all her glory as she landed. Unfortunately it appears this nest was not successful this year as she or her mate should have been sitting on the nest. Instead, they spent their time sitting on the stand and flying around.