Donald-e-Brown Photography

Wow! Events...
When we speak of spectacular events, we often think of events like the great migration in Kenya or the like but all around us are "lesser" spectacular events that take our breaths away!!  In Columbia, SC at the Riverfront Park, each year the shad (fish) make their journey upstream to spawn, passing through an area full of rocks and a dam wherein the rangers have built a fish ladder to help the Shad navigate upstream.  As the shad swim upstream in schools, somehow the birds are informed and arrive in great numbers to gorge themselves on the unlucky shad that happen to not reach the fish ladder and become lunch to gulls, herons, egrets, commorants, terns and other birds that gather at the dam area in anticipation of their arrival.  When the conditions are just right, they are a sight to see!!  I got on the road this morning at 6:30am to witness once again this feeding frenzy!! My friend and I were greeted with this sight!!

A special treat was the arrival of an Osprey and I was immediately impressed by the intensity with which this guy peered down into the water hunting for his lunch.

And then he locked onto his prey beneath the water and dove headfirst into the river only to emerge with this huge fish in his talons.

After that things settled down as the birds waited for a school of shad and then began their fishing in earnest.

How great thou art!!!