There's a beach in Plymouth that's a great location to photograph Ospreys - a nesting platform sits right on the beach and a pair of Ospreys nests there pretty much every year. I was there in July a couple of years ago and was fortunate enough to see the chicks experimenting with flight. They were flapping and hovering right above the nest for a few seconds at a time, and what was interesting was that they looked graceful even while learning how to fly. Note the orange hue to the eyes - the juveniles have orange eyes which gradually turn yellow as they mature.
Though I've been using a 600mm lens for a few years now, I was experimenting here with a 500mm lens and shooting handheld instead of on the tripod/gimbal rig. I found the freedom of movement fantastic for flight photography - check my gear blog soon for some updates…