Eaglets

As promised, I told you all I'd post a photo of the Eaglets. This may or may not be the best shot I have; I still have to look through the (too) many photos I took of them. I've been shooting pretty much non-stop since yesterday morning.

I got up yesterday and went out to see if I could catch the Eaglets on top of the nest where I could shoot them. I stayed for about an hour and got a lot of shots. In one or two of them I caught the older of the two Eaglets trying to fly from branch to branch. If you look closely, you can see the smaller one with his beak open just under the branch to the left of the big one. I got some shots of the Eaglet try to fly from branch to branch, (I'll post when I get caught up with my editing). In the afternoon, I went on a shoot with my friends, Frank and Ford, in downtown St Petersburg. This morning, I went on a shoot with my Meetup Group, The Florida State Photography Meetup Group.

Ten of us went out to Hillsborough River State Park from 9:30 until 1:30 today. I will tell you I have a lot of photos to edit just in the last 2 days! Not to mention that I'm still working on a VIP event I just shot Friday night. I guess I'd better get started.

Bald Eagle

I guess it must seem to you all that I'm on another bird kick again. This is another shot of the Bald Eagle guarding her nest here in St Pete. I still haven't been able to get off a good shot of her Eaglets. According to my friend, Jim, they still haven't fledged as of last week. He was able to catch the Eaglets and one of them is still too small to fledge. I just have to get there early enough when they're feeding so I can catch a shot of them.

I have tomorrow morning off, so if I can get a decent night's sleep I'll be heading there first thing when I get up. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a shot of her babies.

We've been having some bad weather here again and both days I was off, it was raining. I sure hope I can get over there in the morning.

Update on my little Mottled Duck family: I haven't seen any of them since their first day out. I'm beginning to worry. I'm hoping to see them tomorrow while I'm off. Wish me luck--or rather, wish them luck. There's so many Hawks and that 'gator here I'm praying they'll make it long enough to fledge.

That's it for me tonight. If I'm going to get up early, I'll have to go to bed early.

Bald Eagle

While I'm recovering from my broken foot, I had to cut my hours at work, so I have some extra time on my hands. Today I went to check on a local Eagle nest. The Eaglets are getting bigger and the word is that they're ready to fledge. I didn't see the Eaglets today at all. I probably went at the wrong time.

This is either the mother or father; I think they look the same--at least to me, they do. She/he was preparing to take flight, so I waited and waited and got lucky. As luck would have it, I got the second shot just as she/he was lifting off. There's some motion blur due to panning to keep her in my viewfinder. They lift off so fast.

Their nest is huge! It's hard to tell from these shots, but it's enormous. I'll be sad when they leave the nest. It's been a lot of fun watching them.

Bald Eagle

My friends have been going to Honeymoon Island and Anclote Key, here in Florida, where there are known active Eagle nests. Although I don't have a lens nearly long enough to successfully shoot these beautiful birds, I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

I've never seen a Bald Eagle in the wild before and I must say that finding a pair nesting was quite the thrill. This is either the male or the female. For a long time, probably an hour and a half I watched the nest and only saw the Eaglets (there are two of them at this nest) popping their heads out every now and then. Mom and Dad were somewhere else and I assumed they were out hunting. Well you all know what assumed stands for. Mom and Dad were both there, very close to the nest keeping a watchful eye on their cute little Eaglets. It took a while for me to spot them. Each parent was hidden in different, but nearby trees.

An Osprey on the hunt flew over the nest and Mom and Dad came to the rescue, each of them perching in the open on two separate branches just above the nest. I know they had nothing to fear from the Osprey, since Osprey only eat fish, but they let him know that they were there to protect their babies in case he got any funny ideas. It was amazing to watch them squawking at the Osprey until he left the air above the nest. I also know that the Eagles knew they had nothing to fear from the Osprey. It was as if they were telling him that this was their territory and that they were mightier than the Osprey. Besides, there was two of them.

I waited for another hour, but they never went into the nest to feed their young. I guess it was the wrong time of day. It was quite an amazing experience. One that has convinced me that more than ever I need a longer lens.

Settings for this image in very tricky, contrasty light were: ISO 200 because the light was very bright, Aperture Priority Mode at F5.6 to ensure a fast enough shutter speed to contain any movement and + 1 2/3 exposure compensation to keep from burning out the shadows since the Eagle was backlit from the sky. I used two cameras with 2 lens combinations: on the tripod, I had my Canon EOS 40D with a 75-300mm lens and a 2X tele-extender, and I hand held my 20D with the 55-250mm lens attached. This was shot with the 55-250mm at 250mm. The 75-300 lens isn't that great a lens and I knew it was pretty useless to try it with a 2x tele-extender on it. I'm glad I kept the 55-250mm handy because the other lens, while it gave me a lot more distance, there was so much chromatic aberrations (purple fringing in high contrast areas) that the photos I took with it were pretty much useless. I had a feeling that would happen. I was hoping the better camera might make up for the loss in quality with the lens/tele-extender combination. It's always good to be prepared.

Bald Eagle

This Bald Eagle was at Lowry Zoo. He's there because I believe he's blind in his other eye and can't be released out into the wild. I had to wait quite a while before I could get his picture with his good eye showing.

There are 2 Bald Eagles in the exhibit. I don't know what's wrong with the other one, but they're both equally beautiful.

I like the position of his head in this shot. It more closely resembles the portrait of the Bald Eagle as our nation's symbol.

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