IDA GROVE, Iowa, Dec. 5, 2013 — Photographer Don Poggensee spent a couple of weeks this fall photographing ospreys as they made their migration back south through Iowa from summering in more northern territory.

“In the fall, we usually see them before it gets really cold and our ponds and lakes freeze up,” he said. “Until about mid-November, we had one osprey that was working the Moorehead Park lake just north of Ida Grove, for his daily fish diet.”

He noted that “several counties in Iowa have placed small nesting platforms around some of their lakes, and have indeed gotten ospreys to re-nest in Iowa.  The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has led this effort to re-introduce ospreys to nest again in Iowa.”

Poggensee said he took these osprey images over a two week period this fall in Moorehead Park.

“Often they will dive, sometimes completely under water, to take a small fish,” Poggensee said. “Some people will mistake the osprey for a bald eagle, but the osprey is much smaller, with no white tail and only a small white patch on the top and back of their heads.”

Enjoy the fishing action in the photos below here.

You can write the photographer by email at donpog@netllc.net or by using the form below here.