Dwight Hottle and A-Jay aren't the best fishers!

[Swamp Girl]

Dwight and A-Jay aren't the best fishers. Ospreys are:

 

Barbed pads on the sole of an osprey’s feet help them grip fish.

An osprey makes a catch on average one in every four dives. Imagine those odds on each of your casts.

They have a treble hook of the natural world. Ospreys have an unusual feature among hawks, a reversible outer toe. This lets them sink two talons into a fish in front and back.

An osprey has the dexterity to line up their prey head first into the wind while in flight to create less drag.

They need little time to get their limit. The average time an osprey spends hunting before making a catch is just 12 minutes.

 

I sometimes fish under ospreys. Now I know what they're thinking as they watch me: "Amateur!"

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Yeah but how many DDs they got? ?

 

 

[ironbjorn]

9 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Yeah but how many DDs they got? ?

 

 

It's hard to find a surgeon at the lake.

[gim]

Peregrine Falcons are more impressive to me.  They are the fastest living thing on the planet, dive bombing vertically at clocked speeds of over 200 mph.  No pigeon is safe.

 

[Dwight Hottle]

My fishing buddy hooked one in the talon back in March while fishing shiners on Toho. She put up a fierce fight until we could get her/him unhooked at boat side. Came in talons first with wings flapping. When you see the talons up close & personal they are pretty impressive. 

[jbmaine]

It's somewhat humbling when you fish an area for sometime and come up zilch, only to see a bald eagle fly by, swoop down, snag a good fish, then land in a nearby tree and have a meal.

[scaleface]

How about the pelican 

Its beak  hold more than his belly-can

I dont know how the hell-he-can.

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Blue Herons will eat Alligators.....about as a Apex as you can get for a bird ?

 

 

[GRiver]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

I sometimes fish under ospreys. Now I know what they're thinking as they watch me: "Amateur!"

I can totally understand. Had one dive down right beside me, after I had been fishing for couple hours with out even a nibble. He/she came up with a huge bowfin, didn’t even see it coming, startled the bejeebs out of me. 
I’m sure it flew off squawking “Amateur!”

[Swamp Girl]

Incredible video, @AlabamaSpothunter. I wouldn't have believed it unless I'd watched it.

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Peregrine Falcons are more impressive to me.  They are the fastest living thing on the planet, dive bombing vertically at clocked speeds of over 200 mph.  No pigeon is safe.

 

 

If A-Jay ever figures how to fly, he'll fish like ^this.^

[N Florida Mike]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Blue Herons will eat Alligators.....about as a Apex as you can get for a bird ?

 

 

Yeah but momma gators closing in !

[Way north bass guy]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Blue Herons will eat Alligators.....about as a Apex as you can get for a bird ?

 

 

On several occasions I’ve watched  a blue heron snap up a chipmunk or squirrel from a nicely manicured lawn close to the water. One less tree rat to make a mess in the boat!

[Bird]

We have a 7 acre farm pond that got whiped out by otters...... they gotta rank up there.

[PaulVE64]

I once had a Blue Heron attack one of my streamers.

I was bank fishing and standing beside a tree.

The Heron was on the other side of the tree and obviously didnt see me either.

Scared the begeesuz outa me when she attacked.

[geo g]

A long time ago an old timer once told me if you see a tree with an Osprey nest fish that tree hard.  The birds are sloppy eaters and scraps will drop in the water and attract bait fish.  The bass will follow!  That was one of those nuggets of info that stuck in my mind!

[thediscochef]

5 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Blue Herons will eat Alligators.....about as a Apex as you can get for a bird ?

 

 

I love herons so much, so metal yet such goofballs. My favorite bird 100%

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, thediscochef said:

I love herons so much, so metal yet such goofballs. My favorite bird 100%

I love Owls too, but Herons are at the top of my list.   

[geo g]

Once saw a big gator take a Heron along the edge of the canal along alligator alley.  The big bird was wading along the sawgrass edge and the gator must have been sitting on the bottom in three feet of water.  The explosion was amazing, and the bird sounded like a woman screaming.  The end was quick, and both disappeared under the water.  The circle of life!

[BASS302]

3 hours ago, thediscochef said:

My favorite bird 100%

 

My favorite is chicken.  Chicken tacos, chicken parmigiana, chicken teriyaki, chicken potpie . . .

[thediscochef]

2 hours ago, BASS302 said:

 

My favorite is chicken.  Chicken tacos, chicken parmigiana, chicken teriyaki, chicken potpie . . .

Fair point, I don't usually think of chickens when I think of birds. They're more like food with legs to me. Obviously birds. But the flightlessness really makes me forget that sometimes. Same thing with ostriches. Like yeah, thats a bird. But it's mostly just delicious

[Susky River Rat]

Some of these comments made me chuckle. Nature is just down right impressive.

[wdp]

18 hours ago, jbmaine said:

It's somewhat humbling when you fish an area for sometime and come up zilch, only to see a bald eagle fly by, swoop down, snag a good fish, then land in a nearby tree and have a meal.

I’ve witnessed this first hand….. more than once. Yes it’s quite humbling. ?

[BrianMDTX]

In taxonomy, the birds were originally (and still remain) classified as Class Aves (like we are Class Mammalia). But they should actually be Class Dinosauria in the Family Therapoda. Watch a blue heron stare down a meal. If that ain’t a feathered dinosaur I’ll eat my hat. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, BrianMDTX said:

In taxonomy, the birds were originally (and still remain) classified as Class Aves (like we are Class Mammalia). But they should actually be Class Dinosauria in the Family Therapoda. Watch a blue heron stare down a meal. If that ain’t a feathered dinosaur I’ll eat my hat. 

 

i have the same thought: I'll see some birds and think, "Jurassic Park!"