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Osprey drops in to my Cape Cod Wedding!

The majority of 2011 was spent planning my wedding, but now that it's over I'm finally catching up things I've neglected...like my blog! I still squeeze in birdwatching when I can (today I had pine siskins, black-capped chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches at my bird feeder, plus saw a golden-crowned kinglet while on a walk at Carver Pond), but sadly I haven't had the time to sit down and blog regularly. That's going to change in 2012. I've really missed going birding and now I have considerably more time on my hands. I also changed jobs around the time of my wedding, and instead of commuting 2 hours into Boston I now drive 30 minutes to Plymouth. I found an amazing job at SmartPak Equine, a horse supplement and equestrian supply company.

Now that the holidays are over I finally have time to go through all my wedding photos. I've been working putting together a book for us, one for my parents and one for Steve's parents. Hopefully
that will be done soon!

While looking through all the photos I keep noticing all the bird ones. We got married at the Lighthouse Inn in West Dennis, MA (on Cape Cod). It's located right on the ocean, so naturally there were lots of shorebirds, gulls, and even an osprey made an appearance. My wedding photographer Lindsey Light was amazing. She and her assistant Mike were very accommodating and when I told her I was a birder and I would love if she snapped some photos of the birds she willingly obliged. In fact- in some of these pictures it wasn't even intentional! The osprey was fishing in the breakwater while we were getting photos taken on the narrow dock. It was hard to concentrate on photos when the osprey was right next to us diving into the water for fish. Here are the photos- enjoy!

Herring Gull


At first I was doubtful this was the Osprey in this photo, but after checking my Hawks at a Distance book I'm reminded that the Osprey has a distinct "M" shape in the sky at a distance.

Herring Gull in the background

Osprey flying in low hunting for fish

Osprey
All photo credit in this post goes to our amazing wedding photographer Lindsey Light. If you're getting married soon, or looking for portrait photos in general (she does engagement photos, as well as baby and family pictures) definitely check her out.

Comments

Scott Simmons said…
I never knew that ospreys were such wedding crashers! Nice blog

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