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1-5-09
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Still December 30th. This was by far the best day for shooting. I'm not sure if I'm right, but it sure seems to me that eagles also prefer sunny conditions for fishing. Quite a few times, this year and last, I noticed that they seem to leave their perch in the trees as soon as the sun shows itself. If someone knows if this is true or not, I'd like to hear it. I'll still prefer sunny days over anything though.
Now THAT is what I was waiting for, except a bit clearer perhaps. It is a tad blurry at full size. In fact, I think the one above is close to a 100% crop. I might have moved the lens a bit too fast for IS to work its magic.
This one is a bit better though. This might actually be my favorite one of them all so far this season.
Same bird, just trying to escape an oncoming assault...
It always seems to be the younger ones who fight. Again, probably just coincidence.
Almost got it! I know he came very close. In fact, he might have even dropped it after this. This was actually happening quite a distance out on the river. I'm surprised the pics turned out as clear as they did.
Not one of my favorites, but it'll still do. I still want the "perfect" shot, with one close and facing toward me and its talons in the water. That's another goal before they leave for the season.
NOW we finally in the new year. This was January 2nd. Again, same place, lock and dam 14. Yep, another cloudy day. Oh well.
All the action happened far out on the water this time, so I really don't have anything great from today. There were a TON of them circling the spillway and I literally saw one eagle every 30 seconds swoop down for some sushi. They were fun to watch of course, but they were pretty far out there.
This one was pretty cool. I've never seen one do this before. The fish in the crosshairs...
He's got it and it going for the talon-to-foot transfer. I'm guessing this little maneuver was to ward off any potential ambushes.
He swallows it shortly after this, and I did get about 12 shots of this sequence, but unfortunately they were horribly out of focus.
Here is what I was talking about earlier. Eagle after eagle started dive bombing in a pretty tight radius waaayyyy out there. Even at 400mm they still look distant.
Fish in the talons, close, and in perfect focus. A rarity.
The next few are of the same bird. This is the first one I've seen snag a fish and sit on the bank instead of a tree. Nothing too special, but it attracted too much attention.
Ready to land. There were two more juveniles that "joined" him for lunch, but the pictures really didn't show too much. They were all in line with each other, so my point of view wasn't the best. They had a few heated arguments, but he never shared his catch.
This is just the spillway. There were enormous chunks of ice crashing down and it looked pretty cool. This picture really doesn't do it any justice, if there even is any to be had. I just though it was pretty neat.
Last day of this entry. This was January 5th, just a few days ago. I really didn't walk away with much at all today. I only work till 3:30 so I figured I'd have enough daylight for a quick outing. It turns out the sun was just a touch too low, so ISO still had to be bumped to 400. A few of these are a bit underexposed.
Definitely not an eagle, but I still thought it was a lucky shot. These little guys are EVERYWHERE. I'm pretty sure they are only getting the really small fish that the eagles don't care to go after. They normally don't even land on the water, just fly by and pick them right off the top.
No time to sit and enjoy. Time to look for another.
Young and old on the same branch, but a tad underexposed. Oh well. It's been fun so far! I can guarantee at least one more eagle account on this site considering it's still relatively early in the season for our visitors. They normally stick around to early/mid-march.
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