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A battle begins! The juvenile on top landed over on the small island by the dam with a fish but was quickly ambushed by watchful adults. It's not like this is a new thing with eagles. You'd think they'd finally get the picture that if you land with a meal by hundreds of other birds, you aren't going to sit and eat quietly.
The young guy dropped the fish and the battle ended very quickly. One of the adults ended up with the fish and flew away over the treetops out of sight. A few minutes later I heard what sounded like 8-10 other birds calling/shrieking.
Landing gear down! Ready for attack!
Now the real action begins. Meghan actually took my XSi out with the 50mm (my only other lens besides the 17-40L right now) and got a shot of about 35-40 eagles out over the river. There was an unbelievable number of eagles in the air at one time. I have NEVER seen anything like that. All the while the guys from Wisconsin were chucking these dead fish out into the current. As they'd float by, the eagles would come down right in front of us, like clockwork. Oh yeah....I was using the Rebel XT again for most of these shots. I broke it out of retirement. The readouts are all jazzed up still but I'm familiar enough with the camera to know where I'm at exposure-wise.
Finally got one facing me as well. He wasn't the only one either. I was as giddy as a kid in a candy store right about now.
Good stuff.
This one I have no idea how it even turned out halfway decent. Somehow I bumped the dial up top to Av (aperture priority) and reduced my shutter speed to 1/250. I was moving the lens pretty fast too trying to follow him right out in front of me.
These shots are all starting to look a bit alike now. I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to leave out and what I wanted to include. These are probably just half of the ones I got.
Put on the brakes! It's cool watching them scream across sky then abruptly stop and nosedive toward the water. There are so many birds in the air at once they have to beat the others to the punch.
Sights locked.....
Unsuccessful grab. Maybe next time little fella.
Landing gear is down for another go...
Got him! Sometimes this happens. One will hurriedly swoop down for one, miss it, others will follow including some buzz-by's about one inch on top of the water, then after 10 tries one finally gets it. The fish must have to be perfectly positioned for them to get their talons on them.
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