My FAVORITE! Ahh ... Bird.

The Osprey.

I "got hooked on them", after I left my "Home Town" up in Pulaski, New York, where I grew up right next to The Salmon River for years ... I never knew.

See, Osprey eat FISH, ahh, period!

Come on! Take another look at those, ahh, "FISH HOOKS" they fly around with!

I'm serious.

And yes, they LOVE Salmon, so yeah, they have a nest just outside the town, setup by the Power Company, like, "near" their real Power Lines, but far enough away to keep them off their lines, but still be close enough to the river to keep them "HAPPY"!

Works for me! And everyone else, yeah, even the OSPREY!

And yes, they return to the same nest year after year each Spring, you know, after spending their Winters down South where it is warm!

Yeah, and AFTER I moved South years ago (1983), after college, yeah, somehow I found out about this one nest, where I spent many an HOUR, each Summer, sitting/standing beside my old Honda Elements photographing them landing, and taking off from their nest.

HOUR after HOUR, DAY after DAY, WEEK after WEEK ... Like, all SUMMER long! You know, whenever I found myself at "HOME", ahh, visiting my sister ... You know, once I could "tear my self away" from that hay field, like I said, just outside the town limits ...

Yes, the adult pair seemed to "always" have one (maybe two!) young chicks each Summer, and yeah, would have to fly off, catch a fish, and bring it back to the nest, ahh, you know, like, over and over, and over, and over again!

Like clockwork ... THOUSANDS of images! Summer, after summer, after summer, year after year! Again ... Over, and over, and over, and over again.

And again.

See where I came up with that whole, ahh, "OVER AND OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN THINGY?

Yeah, now you know.

Works for me.

And my photography ...

Oh! And of course! Ahh, the osprey!

Perfect.

And I grew up, like, right there! I even lived like I said, right "next" to the river, just across the street! For years.

BEFORE I ever became a photographer.

Or a fly-fisherman ...

Really.

No, to be honest, those Salmon fishermen sort of, well, drove me nuts! To be honest. They came into town, by the THOUSANDS (HUNDREDS?), left cut-up salmon "guts" all over the place, and yeah, for a guy that didn't fish, it wasn't "pretty", or fun, and I'll just leave it at that.

Oh! Trust me, it was CRAZY! People all along the river, on the bridges, parked all over the place, shoulder to shoulder (it seemed!), oh yeah! It was INSANE!

As far as I was concerned.

And then ... They didn't "CATCH" them, no, they just , ahh, "SNAGGED" them!

Come on!

But they were HUGE fish, and then, YEARS later, when I did get into flyfishing (what was that movie? Brad Pitt. What? "A RIVER RUNS THOUGH IT", yeah, that was what got me "hooked" on fly-fishing ... Like I said, YEARS later.

After high school, working for a few years, then joining The Marines, and after college (The G.I. Bill), then getting married to a woman that joined the Army, where I got a job as a photographer, while living over in Germany, and then, like I said, after seeing that movie ...

I bought a fly-rod, read a few books, articles, whatever I could find, and yeah ... Got "HOOKED" on fly-fishing! And once we moved here to North Carolina, yeah, I found out about SOUTH MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, and started fishing for trout, ahh, in the Spring, and then again in the Fall, year after year ... Caught, and released, many a trout in my day, that was for sure!

Over and over again ...

Not too many osprey around here, but yeah, like I said, I spent a lot of time up in Pulaski, New York during the summers ...

But now, yeah, YEARS later, we all live down here now (the winters were tough). So yeah, I don't get "UP NORTH" as much as I once did ... Or even over to SOUTH MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, which yeah, that settles that!

I do know what I will do today once I step away from this computer ... Duh?

Go for a "little ride" ...

Good luck with that! Hope to see you over there one of these days ... You never know.

Just have your camera ready ... And a fly-rod, you know, if you are looking for something new in your life!

And yes! Why do you think I always talk about my "FAVORITE" type camera! Yeah, those small, water-proof, "do everything" cameras ... You know, the ones that I take EVERYWHERE!

Perfect for fishing for trout!

Yeah, I catch 'em, photograph 'em, and then relaese 'em ...

Say it with me!

OVER, and OVER, and OVER again!

Enjoy.

And yeah, if you ever see an osprey, go ahead, see what you can come up with!

Just look for a nice place for fish to swim ... I've even photographed them while out at the OBX! Yeah, on the beach, in the waves, dragging a nice size fish of some sort (I couldn't tell what kind of fish), right up onto the beach!

Ahh, ONCE!

So yeah, like I like to say, over and over again ... You never know!

Just be READY!

See ya out there!

You know, somewhere.