Osprey
£25.00
A lot of lies about herons, from the ‘Lies About Birds’ series (scroll down to read the text). Illustrated with a poor photograph of a paper bird I have made out of old RSPB magazines.
A4 print, mounted (and put in a cellophane bag to prevent escapes).
(Please note that, regretfully, I don’t send work outside of the UK)
1 in stock
From underneath, ospreys are big white birds that hang around large bodies of water and consequently are sometimes mistaken for gulls. The simple way to tell the difference, even at a distance, is that ospreys make a distinct Y shape when they are diving for fish – wings up, feet making the downward stroke of the Y – then, to get themselves back in the air from the water they lift their wings into an M and make powerful, repeated, C shapes with their wings until they get properly airborne. Once there they hold their wings in an inverted A. Gulls, on the other hand, don’t like The Village People.
Ospreys wear a permanently cheesed-off expression. This is because we have treated them very, very badly for 200 years. They will stare straight into your eyes, down the live-stream cameras we put on their nests, to let you know that they haven’t forgotten. But for now, we are forgiven. Let’s keep it that way.
