We took the short drive from our home out to the Cape Horn Outlook to show our friend Lori the view. Only moments after arriving, Rocky pointed out what she thought was a Bald Eagle Nest. I only had my 24-240mm lens with me. It was hard to tell if those were Bald Eagle chicks in the nest. So, we drove back out the next day with my 60-600mm lens, and it became clear it was an Osprey Nest, not a Bald Eagle nest.
An Osprey Nest is different from a bald eagle nest primarily in terms of size, location, and placement. Bald eagle nests are large, cone-shaped structures hidden in the canopy of big live trees. Osprey nests are smaller and flatter collections of sticks. Ospreys build their nests in open, exposed spots such as dead tree tops or man-made platforms. Of course, we didn’t know that until we got home and began really analyzing the photos.
I’ll be honest, I was so excited to get back to this beautiful spot when I thought this was a Bald Eagle nest. But I must say, an Osprey nest is pretty cool. And Ospreys are specifically classified as unique raptors. They belong to their own distinct taxonomic family (Pandionidae) and genus (Pandion), separate from other hawks, eagles, and falcons. And they surely did nest in a beautiful location. The Columbia River Gorge is an amazing place.
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Beautiful blue skies … ours were smoky
That’s a wonderfully scenic stretch of the Columbia Gorge.
The Bonneville Dam and locks are fun to watch – we saw a “paddle wheeler” come downstream through the lock