Poudre River Osprey

My reward for braving the blustery weather to run yesterday was seeing 3 Osprey, just arrived from their winter range, fishing at the "ponds" (flooded gravel pits) along the Cache la Poudre River. The birds, or their parents, were introduced to the region in 1989: before the construction of reservoirs there was no habitat for Osprey on the eastern slope of the Front Range.

This Osprey photo was taken by Mike Baird near Los Osos, California. I saw 2 up close on the Mendocino Coast last summer, but wasn't carrying a camera at the time.