Sporting

Osprey Carries Shark Carrying Fish

A Florida photographer captures a rare circle-of-life moment

Photo: Doc Jon

A week and a half ago, Florida resident and nature photographer Doc Jon was walking along Madeira Beach, when he spotted an osprey flying above him. “I always have my camera, it’s like a limb attached to me,” he says. So he snapped a few photos. Looking through the camera lens, he could see the bird of prey was carrying a fish—no big deal, he captures eagles and osprey in action frequently.

But when he zoomed in on the images, he could see the osprey’s talons hooking what looked like a small shark—likely a dogfish. Back at home on his computer, he zoomed in further. “Sure enough, the bird was carrying a shark, but then I see this other thing—whoa!” he exclaims, “That’s a fish in the shark’s mouth!”

Doc Jon

The osprey carried a shark, which carried a fish—a once-in-a-lifetime moment of predator-predator-prey. Or some sort of Tur-duc-ken (O-shark-ish?) situation. “The odds are impossible that I got this shot,” Doc Jon says. “I take pictures all the time, but I don’t know how I’ll ever top this.”


> More on ospreys: Live camera shows hatchlings near Savannah


CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.


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