Aerial Anglers

After trading an hour of sleep Saturday night for an additional hour of daylight on Sunday, 

Hoot Owl Karma decided to redeem that extra hour right away with a return trip to the site of the prior evening's moonshots. 

Several weeks of above average precipitation had raised lake levels to the point that a significant amount of water was being released into the river below the dam, creating quite a boon for the gulls and piscine raptors hovering above the roiling whitewater. 

   

A handsome pair of ospreys plied the skies, successfully nabbing fish after fish before our admiring eyes. 

  

The "fish hawk" or "sea hawk" depends upon live fish for nearly 100 percent of its diet, and is ubiquitous once again along most of North America's coastline and inland waters, after nearly succumbing to the detrimental effects of the chemical DDT in the middle of the last century.

It was well worth a little lost shuteye to spend an hour in the presence of such impressive creatures, soaring and diving and thriving once again in their rightful place above the waters of central Carolina.