Drenched Osprey

One dark morning at San Joaquin Wildlife Preserve in Irvine, CA, I visited the Osprey nest. While there, the female flew off and about ten minutes later we spotted her on this branch one lake away. I only got two shots off before she took off back to the platform where they are nesting. She proceeded to flap her wings and hold them out from her body to dry them off. She was drenched from head to foot. I can only presume that she attempted to catch a fish and landed completely in the water. I wonder how common this is as I have never seen it before.

She was on the perch flapping her wings, holding them out to dry them off and also jumped repeatedly in the air and flapped her wings to dry them off.

Neat shots. I was lucky enough to see an osprey drop down into the ocean-too shallow for a dive-so crept up on him (no bling) and watched him bathe. then he arose to tree and preened and dried.
Then I heard calling and he replied and sure enough flew off to meet a female (lots of bling)........makes sense, no one wants to go on a date smelling fishy!

follow up pic

and one more, I haven't learned how to add more than one. sorry

Extremely interesting images, Patrick and Nick. Thank you for sharing them.

Nick,
Great filling in the blanks. It helps to know how the drenching might have happened. Your picts are very interesting and informative. They show what really happens!

thanks for posting them.
Patrick