Osprey chick on the Great Barrier Reef

I was in Australia out on the Great Barrier Reef a few years ago. On a small spit of sand not far from Lizard Island. I came upon this young osprey chick that had been blown out of its nest. The wind was steady
at about 20-25 knots and this young bird was still discovering his wings and wasn’t able to fly yet, especially with the strong winds.

He was perched on a large piece of driftwood on the idyllic white sand. I initially approached the bird very cautiously not wanting to scare it off, for his sake not mine. The island was no more than a 100 yard spit of sand and bushes more than 4 miles from the next island. Any attempts to fly in the wind surely would send the osprey further down wind and inevitably into the drink.

I only had a 12-24mm lens on my Nikon D200 for this little excursion where I was shooting wide underwater shots, so I needed to get close if I was going to get anything. Step by step I was able to get within inches of the young chick and make full use of my ultra wide-angle lens. He was unafraid. He just sat there holding his position in the wind and admiring his reflection in my lens barrel.

It was the most beautiful scene: the turquoise water, white sand, clear skies and a perfect wild osprey! I spent about an hour photographing him at various angles and postures making sure to include the incredible location.

When I had exhausted my ideas and felt I had the goods, we made a decision to try and return him to his nest. I knew the wind wasn’t expected to change for another week and figured the chick would die without the food and shelter of the mother’s nest.

We wrapped a beach towel around him and carefully carried him around to the windward side of the island where we had noticed a large nest earlier. There we placed him back in the nest where two other chicks were hunkered down out of the wind.

The mother shrieked above us in the sky and we moved on hoping that we had done the right thing.

Gear: Nikon D200 / Nikon 12-24mm F4 lens

Top image / Exposure: ISO 200 / F8 1/800th


For this one, I wanted to include the sun in the shot. I used a small aperture (F22) to get the nice star effect.

As always, click any image for the large version. TR