Watching the fishers of Island Park

While visiting with two fishermen from Maryland on the bank of the Henrys Fork near Last Chance, we watched as an Osprey came flying down the river.

We watched as the fishing bird started sallying in the air, locating a fish and dove for it. Completely
submerged, it struggled out of water, with a fish in its talons, which caused one of the fishermen to say, “It was more successful than we were last night.”

The fishermen left as the bird consumed the fish on a fence post, and I continued to look for more birds. While looking at some gulls at a log jam, I noticed a movement on one of the logs.

The movement turned out to be an immature black-crowned night heron harvesting a small fish in the shallows. Studying the log jam more closely, I finally found another young heron along with the two parents.

The one that appeared to be the mom started flying back and forth between the kids and the other adult. All of them were getting their breakfast of minnows and large aquatic insects.

While I was watching the herons, a pair of Belted kingfishers and a family of four Caspian terns flew upriver from the Harriman State Park.

I did not see any of them attempt to capture any fish, but knew that they all would be trying as both species love to eat them.

The birds kept my attention for too long as I was late for an appointment to deliver fishing flies to the Drift Lodge on Henrys Lake Flat.

After I finished my business I had a little time to stop on my way home, so I pulled into the fishermen’s parking lot near Last Chance again.

It was starting to get hot, but the herons were still there and one of the young ones flew about 10 feet before awkwardly landing on another log.

An Osprey came by and caught another fish but instead of eating it, it headed toward the local nest where two young were waiting for it.

After a few minutes of watching them, I decided to stop at Silver Lake at Harriman State Park, and I immediately saw two family groups of Double-crested cormorants diving for fish.

One of the youngsters caught a small minnow and was working hard to dispatch it before swallowing the hapless fish.

Each time I go to Island Park, I love to stop at Silver Lake and sit at a picnic table next to the lake and take pictures of the birds and other wildlife.