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my favorite Audubon's:
Fish hawk, (today, Osprey)
This is just a magnificent portrait of an osprey. Love it! Love it! If I could own but one Audubon, this would be it. Watching an osprey dive into the water after a fish and then wrestle it to the surface and fly away is one of the most dramatic acts you'll ever witness in nature. SPLASH! I've seen it often. Power personified. Audubon writes:
“When the fish hawk plunges into the water in pursuit of a fish, it sometimes proceeds deep enough to disappear for an instant. The sure caused by its descent is so great as to make the spot around it present the appearance of a mass of foam. On rising with its prey, it is seen holding it in the manner represented in the Plate. It mounts a few yards into the air, shakes the water from its plumage, squeezes the fish with its talons, and immediately proceeds towards its nest, to feed its young, or to a tree, to devour the fruit of its industry in peace. When it has satisfied its hunger, it does not, like other Hawks, stay perched until hunger again urges it forth, but usually sails about at a great height over the neighbouring waters."
By Audubon the naturalist, from his Ornithological Biography.
Why is Audubon relevant? Because in addition to his artistic talent, perseverance and derring-do, he was a d--- good naturalist. A lot of what we know today about birds, the audacious, often farouche, John James Audubon was the first to put in print.
To see a Pandion haliaetus in action, click: SPLASH.
To see a Pandion haliaetus in action, click: SPLASH.
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1 comment:
On a trail beside a river, I once watched an osprey splash in for a fish, right beside people in a canoe. It came in from behind them, so tho I saw the bird coming, the canoeists were utterly startled by the huge bird blasting down to grab a fish and laboring it's way back up.
The only thing that might have made it better would have been a video camera!
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