The Majestic Bird of Prey

Some wildlife images seem to fall right into a photographers lap while others require lots more time and effort.  We all appreciate those easy images that just kind of fall into place and grace our albums but the ones that will remain in our memories for ages are the ones that we had to work for.  Up until now the Wood Ducks were high on our list of challenging subjects.  Because of this I will treasure all those memories with great fondness for years to come.  Just recently a new subject moved into the coveted position right alongside the Wood Ducks and that would be the Bald Eagle.  While it's true that photographing the Bald Eagle didn't give me fits like the Wood Ducks but we did end up investing a lot of time and energy into capturing images that pleased us.  All together we spent nearly 8 hours behind the wheel and nearly 8 hours sitting quietly on the side of a mountain with our eyes glued on a nest some 250 feet away.  In fact so much time was spent peering through a viewfinder my eyes actually began to go goofy on me.

Truth of the matter is that it was worth every second and these memories aren't apt to leave us any time soon.  Aside from capturing images of absolutely majestic birds we also made a couple new friends that we met on that same mountain side.  To make it an even cooler experience we sat quietly as a 250 LB bear walked the trail only 50 feet below us totally unaware of our presence.  Nature sure is full of surprises!

One of the things that I absolutely love about the Canon 5D Mark III is the ability to shoot nearly 7 frames per second.  That burst speed made the cool sequence possible in the next 5 images.  Under each of the 5 images I will describe what actually occurred here.

Image 1.....A fish dinner is being delivered

Image 2....These young Eaglets are anxious for their next meal and can almost taste it.

Image 3...Oh crap, I can't believe I dropped supper!  And the Eaglets are saying, I can't believe he dropped our supper!  And the female is saying, "way to go butter fingers"!

Image 4...He instantly goes into dive bomber mode!

Image 5... Hey Mom, do you think he'll find that fish?  We're really hungry!

 Okay,  Dad dropped a fish so Mom had to bring supper an hour later.  She brought a big tasty fish.

 Here ya go kids.  Come and get it!

Now that's a good looking fish!  Hey kids, supper is ready and it's your favorite.

Okay, I'm going to be real careful so I don't drop this one or I'll never hear the end of it.

Alright, supper has been delivered without incident!

Did you notice that my fish was much bigger than yours?

Here's a closeup of the mature and the Eaglets.  It will be quite sometime until they have the same appearance as the mature.

Hey Mom, you like me better don't you?  I wuv you!