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1-19-09
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Still on the same day. It was very hard trying to pick and choose which ones to use. On a sunny day like this, that lens shows its true abilities, nailing almost every single shot, WITHOUT noise.
Goose scrambling to get out of the way of an air raid.
These fish were sitting out there on the ice since the day before. Either that or someone else threw some new ones out there that were the exact same size and rested in the exact same location. This one thought about it, but at the last second pulled up his landing gear and bypassed a free meal.
Further on down the ice, where two eagles were fighting over the fish Meghan and I threw out there. We can now say we did our part in aiding the survival of the american bald eagle. Well, for a day. Ok, for an hour, maybe.
Ducks and geese freaking out over something.
Blurry shot, but still liked it.
Another blurry one. Man, I have a real knack for screwing up the best ones of the day.
I'm pretty sure that turbulent water right underneath that eagle were little ducks going submarine style to avoid being on that guy's platter. THAT is what I want, an eagle attacking a duck. The idea may seem a little inhumane, but it's a pretty good example of how the food chain works.
This guy was pretty darn close. I'd say 8-10 feet almost straight overhead.
This was one of my favorites of the day. It's pretty darn sharp full size and I like the sleeping geese in it.
This one was pretty funny too. Fish in the left, chunk of ice in the right. It seemed like he couldn't decide which was which. He was going for the talon to beak transfer, but was slightly confused.
Still a bit confused. He finally figured it out though and dropped the ice just before landing in a tree.
A small chunk of fish fell from an eagle just before this, which caused another little fiasco.
The other one took off as these two came in for a landing. There must have been a fish or two stuck in the ice a few inches down because these two also pecked away at the surface. None of them flew away with anything.
These shots are getting a little repititive now. I was so elated to get my first one, but I didn't realize I'd have about 400 more to follow.
One "handed". Showoff.
Another one of my favs. These two would eventually go after the same fish. If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure the young one gets it.
One other note. Most of these look a little fuzzy, now that I really look at all of them. The original files aren't really that blurry. I do believe Photoshop's "save for web" tool is downgrading quality again big time.
Now we are on to another day, the following sunday. This was up at lock and dam 13 in Fulton, IL. I didn't realize how far of a drive it was. As we were driving up, I saw a car pulled off the side of the road, facing toward us. I thought "what in the heck is he looking at?" considering he wasn't even close to the dam. I look over and see this gigantic bowl of a nest sitting in the top of a tree, right out in the open. This is the first time I've ever seen an eagle's nest. After looking at this picture again, I REALLY wish it was sunny out on this day and I wish I could have gotten just a tad closer. I really wanted to see if I could get any shots of little eaglets up there. I'll be heading back there frequently to monitor it.
Now this was just flat out incredible. I have NEVER seen anything like this, and it's a safe bet I won't ever again. The entire shoreline was like this, but this was by far the most populated tree. My belief is that they were all settled in up there since the rest of the river was completely frozen over due to frigid cold temps the last week or so. The only open water was right by the dam, which we saw an eagle swoop down for a fish literally ever 3-4 seconds. It was quite the site. The only problem was we couldn't get any closer. They had a little concrete rise that I walked up on and looked over. This tree was pretty far out there. I'm surprised the lens reached in this far.
Backed out to 140mm or so.
Time to go. We pulled off the side of the road really quick in hopes at least one would come back and sit, but no dice. But, here's the nest anyway. Still pretty cool to see.
So I now have three more goals before the season is over. The first one is to get at least one eagle and an eaglet together in this nest, on a SUNNY day. The second is to get their mid-air mating ritual as they lock talons. I've seen it, but never photographed it. Thirdly, the duck thing. Chances are I won't be able to get all three. I'd be happy to get at least one of those.
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