Guardians of the nest

On a platform, on a post just off of a small pier, a mother Osprey gets nervous as I approach her nest of sticks. My continued advance has already driven off the father, who is watching from a vantage point farther out into the water. The mother takes flight, but instead of landing in the trees she circles back, unable to comprehend the thought of leaving her nest. Has she already laid eggs? Have they hatched? Even standing on the edge of the pier, clutching my camera with fingers of security and safety, I am unable to tell. I hear no noises coming from the nest, and so I slowly retreat. The mother circles closer with every few feet I give her, until she finally lands on the edge of her nest. She takes a good look at what’s inside, and calls out to me, “You were too close! Too close!” Instead of an apology I offer her my lens, and she flaps her wings as if to say, “Still too close! Too close!” Hoping that I was able to capture her in focus, I lower my lens and thank her for her patience, sorry for disturbing her evening. I walk back up the pier towards the shore, and as I look back she is joined once again by her mate.

Note: To give this photo a “vintage” look, I applied some actions from PW’s Action Set 1, a set of PhotoShop fun created by The Pioneer Woman for her readers. The straight-out-of-camera, or SOOC, image looked like this:

Thanks to Heidi Norris, for this osprey was photographed off of her pier in St. Clements Shores, Md.