Last week’s adventure was worth the time spent. Second attempt, by the way, to get the shot of the Osprey nest at the end of the Bridge.
I was told the trolley takes you across the Bridge for free and you can put your bike on the front end. Sounds great!
Having never gone through the process before, I was befuddled by the contraption on the front end of the trolley that holds the bike and proceeded to jam my bike in however it would fit. The unsympathetic driver yelled at me, shook his head, told me that I was doing it wrong and waited for me to figure it out.
A few minutes later, an unsmiling passenger finally came off the trolly bus and showed me how to do it, securing the bike for me, nodding as I audibly sighed and thanked him. I boarded the trolley and only accidentally noticed the bumper sticker instruction sheet, replete with pictures, on how to load your bike. Oops.
Once on the trolley, it turned out there was a cost of $2 and I needed to have exact change. Of course I only had a fin. Returning to the same unsmiling passenger I managed to get change for my five from his unimpressed wife. As I wobbled to the front of the moving trolley to pay, I was reprimanded once again by the driver to feed the toll after the trolley came to a full stop and to, “puleeease take a seat”.
To add injury to insult (as I was insulted first…) the trolley didn’t stop until we got to the bus station, far from the other side of the Bridge. After prying the bike off the bus, I got on it again and rode all the way back to the Bridge to get my photo. Oh yeah…that’s why I wanted to get across the bridge.
Despite everything I got some nice pictures of the Osprey couple in their big beautiful nest. I even witnessed a territorial spat when another male entered the vicinity. They flew right over my head, less than 10 feet away and it was a sight to behold.
Later I took some shots from the ground looking up and while in this process an older gentleman walked past and commented on how amazing the birds were and wasn’t it nice that they had four eggs up in the nest. I replied that it was indeed wonderful and then backtracked exclaiming how did he know there were 4 eggs? Turns out he lived in the super lush apartment building across from them on the 22nd floor.
Long story short…he let me go up to the condo to take shots from the balcony. Unfortunately it was so far up that my camera couldn’t zoom close enough. He and his wife were extremely pleasant people and the condo was a picture itself, like a spread from a home fashion magazine.
Now I have the assignment to go find a camera to borrow with a good zoom lense and try, try again. I’m not sure how long before the eggs hatch, but that could be the next chapter of the story.
Until then, happy phooting.
