Fr. Charlie and I went to Woods Canyon Lake on the Mogollon Rim to see if we could get some good Osprey shots. In the past Fr. Charlie posted some great pictures he took of Osprey catching fish. They were close up, action shots, which I really liked. He said he took the photographs at Woods Canyon Lake. If you can get there after they stock the lake, the Osprey are abundant, and catching a lot of fish. We decided to try our luck.
We left at about 7 am for the 2 hour drive to Woods Canyon Lake. When we got there it was raining pretty hard and we bought some cheap rain ponchos. Fortunately it cleared up and was nice the rest of the day. The best place to get good Osprey photographs is from a boat in the lake, so we rented a small boat with an electric motor. The young lady at the store said that the lake was stocked a week ago, which wasn’t good news for our Osprey prospects. Sure enough, when we got out on the lake we found the Osprey weren’t having much luck catching fish. There were quite a few of them (I counted 6 at one time), but they didn’t dive often, and when they did, it wasn’t very close to our boat. We were on the lake for about three hours, and we only saw them dive 3 or so times. I posted one photo of the Osprey with a fish, but nothing like Fr. Charlie’s great pictures from the past. We needed to be there one day later 🙂 .
We then hiked the trail that goes all the way around the lake. It was about a 5 mile hike, which we completed in about 3 hours. Not good time, but we weren’t in a hurry and stopped for the sights, and photographs.
We had a great time at a beautiful spot. We weren’t very successful with the Osprey shots, but I learned that it is the place to be if I can get there after the lake is stocked. The woman in the store said they stock the lake anytime Thursday through Tuesday. I think if I try again on a Friday I may hit the jackpot!
Here are some pictures:
