Bald Eagle Feeding Sequence

This is the second year I have wanted a sequence of a Bald Eagle swooping down and picking up a fish. Plan was that this would happen on the Skagit River with a big old Salmon, on a nice sunny day. Well, as luck would have it, today at Juanita, cloudy day but it was SUPPOSED to be sunny, and the Eagle is a fair way off. I didn't get the best focus, but all in all I'm not totally unhappy.

Looking for Lunch:


Flare-out:


Gotcha!:


Heading for Home:


Not a Salmon either, I think it is a Perch.......

 

Thanks, Greg, and you are correct on both points. Given the choice of not shooting due to the distance, and getting what I did, I'll opt for the "shooting" every time :lol:. At the very least I could turn this into a small tryptiche for my desk or something.

As soon as Nikon makes that 1-2000mm f1.0 lens for $1500 I'll be all set to go :lol:

 

Thanks, Harrie, welcome to the Cafe. If you look at the image numbers you will notice that one is missing. THat is one where my camera must have decided all on its own to do a "back-focus", or maybe a "front-focus". Obviously it couldn't have been ME who screwed it up, right :?: :?: :?:

I'm getting better at this, but I suspect that several more years will have to go by, and a lot of practice, before I am really happy.

I, too, like this particular image. What is funny is the pass before this same Eagle missed the fish, this is actually the second time around.

 

Thanks, Gary, I agree with you. Since I got "hooked" on this, in no small part by Ron Reznick darn him :lol: , I am finding myself getting much less happy about what I am capturing. Which, I think, is a good thing as I am trying to "get it better" because I'm not at all sure it is possible to really "get it right".

I am really hoping that perhaps this winter I'll finally get my feeding sequence up on the Skagit River. Of course to do that I have to be freezing my butt off, but I can at least hope for a clear and cold day :lol:

 

Thanks, Keith, and this sure is one place where the HSC and extra pixels would have helped. One of the problems I often have with the birds up here is that the flight patterns, as with this one, often transition from clear sky right down to the water. I have to figure out how to quickly make an appropriate exposure adjustment while still tracking the bird. That is tougher than patting my head and rubbing my belly while walking and chewing and gum :lol: .

Oh, as soon as I can find a D2X for $2,000 I'll jump. Do you have one of those available?

 

Bird photography and patience.....

Bryan and Cory, thank you very much, and it was quite cool.

One of the other things that this Birdie stuff is doing is teaching me what a horribly impatient person I truly am. My friend Jim and I were standing on this dock, watching absolutely nothing happening. 10 minute, 20 minute, half an hour. All of a sudden one of us sees something happening, like this, and we both jump to our cameras and go crazy for 30 seconds. Then we stand around complaining for the next 30 minutes that nothing is happening. Hmmm, I wonder why my wife says I'm crazy :?: :?: :?: