We didn’t have “perfect” weather during my recent Ospreys Galore workshop in Florida — and I wouldn’t change a thing.
This is a male osprey (no brown necklace) bringing Spanish moss back to the nest. We saw this behaviour repeatedly during the trip. Once chicks hatch, nest maintenance becomes constant — in and out, all day long.
Spanish moss is everywhere in the cypress trees around Lake Blue Cypress, so it’s the go-to material. If you watch long enough, you start to see the pattern — leave the nest, grab moss, straight back in.
And there’s a reason for the urgency.
Before the chicks learn to back up and send everything over the edge, the nest gets messy fast. Fresh material helps keep things under control, and the adults stay on top of it.
What I like here is the background.
Most people chase a blue sky. I’ll take this “battleship grey” every time. It isolates the bird, shows the shape, and lets the detail in the wings — and that trailing moss — stand on their own without distraction.
Lake Blue Cypress holds one of the highest densities of nesting ospreys in Florida — hundreds of active pairs in a relatively tight area — which is what makes behaviour like this so repeatable if you put the time in.
No tricks. Just set your manual exposure for the light falling on the subject, pay attention, and be ready when it happens.
