Lakeland Raptors

While in Lakeland I stopped off at Henley Field to see what I might photograph. The park was pretty much locked up, so there wasn't much within that I could. But looking up I discovered several large nests in the lighting, such as the one you see below. And that's when I began to hear the long high cry of birds flying around the lights.

I'm no expert, but based on what I've discovered on-line they all look to be ospreys. It wouldn't be unusual to see ospreys around Lakeland as Lakeland is named for all the lakes in the area. So there should be plenty of fish-filled habitat for the birds to feed. Based on what I saw, I counted at least four ospreys, and possibly five, but I couldn't be sure of the fifth.

This last photo shows one of the ospreys in a cell tower assembly next to the football field. At the range I was taking this photo I couldn't tell if the bird was resting or if there's another nest up there.

It's time like this I wish I had a longer lens than my 50-200mm, or at least had an extender, like the EC-14 or EC-20 to give the 50-200mm zoom a reach out to 400mm (800mm effective focal length).

Technical

Everything taken here with the Olympus E-3 and the Zuiko Digital 50-200mm zoom.