17 of 477

|

An osprey caught a fish right off my beach and flew it so close that I heard the fish curse and felt the beat of wings. I wasn't paying attention and didn't get the picture.

But I have patience. There were two osprey working the beach. The one that brushed me back went off and ate his fish on a jetty. I did find him just as he was finishing and shot the gore in his beak.

We also had C-130s filling the sky. The military aircraft dropped "supplies" throughout the day but it wasn't the long awaited Conch Republic disaster relief effort. The U.S. Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force were practicing search-and-rescue exercises out of Marathon Airport. They circled over the beach, playing peek-a-boo with the palms.

The osprey spent a long time finding this little houndfish. He flew past me this time just as the last C-130 run went by. That houndfish was a squirmin' and wigglin' as I took that shot from my chair.

"The girls say I'm pretty easy; I can be had for most anything with wheels, keels, or terabytes." Dick Harper says. Dick is a contributing columnist for New England’s oldest afternoon daily. He writes trade and general interest articles on consumer issues, cars and boats, manufacturing equipment, and management for small businesses and arts organizations. Oh, yeah. And he takes pictures. A barefoot, outdoor and nature photographer, he has fine art and stock photography from New England, the Atlantic coastal states, Florida, and the American Southwest. "I'm serendipitous," he says. "I'll sit on a site waiting for the superlative sun but I'm just as happy to have a walk around body when I see a speedboat on my street." Click the...