It somehow took me over a decade of hearing about Lacawac Sanctuary, on the shore of Lake Wallenpaupack, PA, before I finally made my way out there. The loss was mine, as the sanctuary is superb, with a wonderful variety of trails through hardwood forests, around ponds, and its own small lake, and of course Wallenpaupack itself.
My first visit had no specific intent; we went there for a nice walk in the woods, and to check it out and get a feel for it. So naturally, being without my birding lens, we discovered a nesting platform on the pond with a very active Osprey family in residence. That’s photographer’s luck for you – when you don’t have the long lens, wildlife inevitably appears.
I was so excited with this discovery that I took a day off and went back the following week, equipped with the bird lens, and spent the better part of a morning happily walking back and forth around the pond, watching the Osprey parents come and go, and the nearly-grown young calling from the nest.
The angles are tricky, and of course you’re unable to get quite as close to the platform as you’d like, but all to the benefit of the Osprey, who don’t need a hoard of noisy humans directly below their home. And in the end, I was able to get a solid handful of shots that I went home happy with.
By my way of thinking, if you’re close enough to see the orange of an Osprey’s eye, it was a good day!