What a great site! Young and old hunting together. Last year I maybe saw three or four the ENTIRE season! This year the young birds almost outnumber the older ones. That's a true sign of a comeback if I may say so.

I actually followed this pair for quite a while until they were out of site. I was really hoping I could get a better shot of the two together but I had to settle for what I could get. I held my position for just a bit longer hoping they would swoop down over the water for something, but that never happened. For the most part, all of the birds I saw on this day stayed pretty elevated. I suppose when you have eyesight like they do that plays a major advantage.

This guy could could have been a subject for a Mr. Bean movie. As I pulled back up to the dam after driving around town a little while, I noticed this man trying to scale the extremely icy slopes of the parking ramp. As soon as I got out of the truck, his legs and feet briefly fell victim to gravity and down he went. I felt like a real jerk after I witnessed the entire event and just turned my head and pretended not to see it. I think it was mainly to save him from embarrassment because I know I would have sure liked something like that to have been unseen by anyone else. I took a VERY quick trip down to the rivers edge and retreated back to the warmth of the truck after winds of at least 30 mph raced off of the river surface. Slap that on top of low 20 degree temps and that makes for an extremely quick outing. But, this guy sure wanted some sort of shot as he kept on walking all the way down the blocked off section. Being exposed to those very brisk winds and himself also lacking gloves (which I noticed as his feet went up from under him), I still don't know how he lasted way out there that long. Besides, it seemed as if he was only interested in the seagulls anyway. Not once did I see him point his camera up at the eagles.

I eventually pull myself away from the dam and decided to venture further north up Ol' Miss. It was a lazy saturday afternoon so I figured I'd head up to Albany where my brother Dave's family resides. There is an area of very wide open river up there and I thought maybe they'd be thriving on the warm currents of the unmelted backwaters right off the landing. Well, upon arrival I saw NOTHING in the air. That really surprised me. I pulled all the way up to the docks anyway just in case I missed something. My eyes SHOULD have been peeled to the icy surface the entire time. Another very young eagle was about 20-30 feet from my truck before I had noticed it. When I pulled up he flew just to the other side of the opening. I really wish I would have seen him before because he was MUCH closer and would have been an unbelievable shot. But, I still wanted something and was very lucky he didn't fly away for good. With my knowledge on how easily they spook from last years outing I sloooooooowly opened the door to 1/4 poisition, stuck the lens out between the frame and the door, and fired away. He was a good participant and stayed still just long enough for me to fire off about 6-7 shots. So, the trip up there was all paid off for this one shot in my humble opinion. I did notice after reviewing the pictures on the computer that I DEFINITELY need a higher quality zoom lens. All of these shots just seemed entirely too "soft".

After visiting with my brother Dave and his family in Albany, I end up heading back around sunset and call it a day. The next morning I PLANNED on getting up early and heading back out. I suppose I just treasure my weekend sleep a little too much and didn't get up until late morning. I honestly don't think it mattered much however as I still don't see them perching in the tall trees yet (which is what I am waiting for). Hours after I wake up I decide to head on back to the dam to see what I can find. This shot I thought was sort of cool. This is looking upstream on the opposite side of the flowing dam in the very shallow waters.

I saw many more eagles on this day, but decided not to snap any pictures of them considering they mimmicked the same exact shots I had from the day before. I waited until later on to head back out once again and saw this young stray eagle soaring straight above me. This was the lowest one I had seen yet (within shooting range, anyway) and had to pull over. The sun was pretty low at this point as is evident with the underside lit up from the rays. Once again, I am very happy to see so many young birds this year. That only means they will hopefully be around for many years to come and in greater numbers.

I quickly decide to head on back home after seeing nothing perched up in the trees yet. I will be heading out again once they start doing so. I really don't know what it takes for them to start perching, but I do know it's a LITTLE bit easier to sneak up on them and get some closer shots. Hopefully I will be able to rent the Canon 100-400mm L lens some weekend when they are abundant again .

After pulling in the driveway, I just turned around and saw this moon lit up in the twilight skies. I really only posted this shot because I didn't think it was too bad for being hand-held. Anyone actually reading this who knows anything about photography knows how hard it is to keep a lens steady enough at 300mm in low light situations, even with ISO at 1600.

So, it was a pretty good couple of days. Like I mentioned before, as soon as I see them start to perch high up in the trees, you can bet I'll be out again. I just wish I had a better quality lens.