These amazing pictures show a “majestic” osprey dive-bombing a lake to snatch a free fish supper in its talons.
The male birds are prolific hunters at this time of year grabbing rainbow trout to feed their female companions back in the nest.
It is believed 10 to 12 ospreys use the lake at Rothiemurchus fishery in Aviemore, Scotland, to fish for food every morning and sometimes return later in the day.
The birds give anglers a fright as they steal fish from under their noses by dive-bombing into the water.
Julian Orsi, countryside manager at the fishery, said: “It’s a fantastic spectacle. They’ve been coming to the fishery for decades now.
“It was quite cheeky because the osprey‘s were battling for fish with the anglers. But anglers really enjoy osprey‘s diving right in front of them.
“That’s why we say to fisherman when they are fishing, ‘if you’re struggling to catch anything you just sit back and watch the professionals do it’.
“The bird is majestic and spectacular to watch.
“It kicks its wings in and goes into the diving position and almost dive-bombs into the water with full force and latches onto the fish, making sure it gets a good hold.
“Then it orientates itself before flying off, normally in to the wind so it gets the uplift.
“It normally does a circle of honour where it does a lap of the area just to get its orientation before flying off to the nest.”
Julian added: “We’ve got around a dozen birds that visit the Rothiemurchus osprey pond.
“Around this time of year the females are on the nests with the chicks who all will almost have hatched by now.
“The mother always stays on the nest from incubation right through to when its chicks fledge.
“The male’s job is to feed themselves and feed the mother as she is on the nest and the young ones when they start to hatch.
“His job will get progressively harder with the demand for fish increasing as we go through July and August when the chicks get bigger.
“The best time to see ospreys fishing like this is early in the morning and ospreys will take one or two fish.”
