The Lyons Share

Giant sea creature? Meteorite? Crashed UFO? Drowning dog? Poorly-flown drone? Massive fish-eating bird? This is the exact moment a large foreign object landed in the meanders at Cuckmere Haven today. It was of course a massive fish-eating bird or Osprey and after all these years, it's the first time I have seen one fishing, let alone the first time I have seen one catch a fish. Before this sequence I watched it dive twice and catch a huge fish on the 2nd dive. However, it had the fish dangling down by its tail and it was flapping around like mad, so I think it dropped it, as it wasn't holding it minutes later.

Anyway very soon after that it came round again much closer to me so I attempted some rubbish photos (my camera isn't the best for birds) which are heavily cropped. I love these fantastic raptors. Always a huge pleasure to see and it's been years since my last one. I love this first shot for showing just how long winged they are.

Tail up ready for impact. It's hard to imagine it could look more like a plane at this point.

Here it is the moment it leaves the water! Looks pretty odd here.

And it was off. What an awesome experience that was. Don't leave it seven years next time hey?