Sally Hinton, First Flight (Animal & Nature 2021)

An artificial osprey nesting platform was installed in our area to replace habitat loss due to urbanization and has proven to be very successful. This portfolio shows an osprey pair that had reared two chicks that were ready to fledge. After much sibling bickering one chick finally takes the plunge - tests its wings by doing little jumps and finally stretched out its wings and flew for the very first time. It did one circuit and decided to land back onto the nest - all of which had to be instinct and learnt behaviour from watching their parents. Nature is so amazing!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.