Post by baja252 on Jun 18, 2013 22:28:22 GMT -6
After the rain stopped today, I went out on the water to see if I could find Star or Ozark. Ozark was in the old nest tree. I found Star in a tree down the hill and around the corner from the nest.
How do I know it was Star? By his dangling foot.
After sitting for 20-30 minutes, he flew away. I figured he would exit the tree, go around some other trees and up to the nest in the open area. Instead he took off on a much harder flight path thru the trees. He had to swerve in between several trees to get back towards the nest. Clearly Star can fly much better than I thought he could.
When an eagle shows up at our house all pandemonium breaks out. Who ever sees it first yells, "EAGLE" and everyone comes running. If my wife is nearby, she usually has my camera lens cap off and ready for me when I get there. You never have much time to adjust camera settings, so throughout the day I continually adjust my settings based on the sun to try to have everything ready in case an E shows up. The tree they like is close to our deck so I can't go outside to photograph the E's. I have to crack the sliding glass door and stay inside so I don't scare them away. When their fishing things happen fast, about 9 out of 10 times I'm too late and I get nothing. Today I got lucky. Stein was only here for 90 seconds total, but I was able to get about 60 good photos.
I didn't see him catch the fish, I wasn't even looking at the lake. As I walked across the living room, out of the corner of my eye I saw a wing. As I ran to get the camera I could see he had a fish and it was wildly flopping all over the place. I believe he landed to let it settle down before he flew home with it. Any one that fishes knows how hard it is to hold a flopping fish, Stein held it solidly with only two talons .... it was amazing to see.
If you look close you can see blood flying off the tail as the fish flops around.
Some of these photos are a little dark, but I didn't want to Photoshop them at all, they are just cropped.
These next two photos have been Photoshopped, the originals were too dark to see.
We have a flag banner (not a real flag) hanging off our deck. When he first landed and before I zoomed in on him it was in the corner of the shot. I was in such a hurry I didn't even know I took this shot until later, when I looked at the photos on my computer.
How do I know it was Star? By his dangling foot.
After sitting for 20-30 minutes, he flew away. I figured he would exit the tree, go around some other trees and up to the nest in the open area. Instead he took off on a much harder flight path thru the trees. He had to swerve in between several trees to get back towards the nest. Clearly Star can fly much better than I thought he could.
When an eagle shows up at our house all pandemonium breaks out. Who ever sees it first yells, "EAGLE" and everyone comes running. If my wife is nearby, she usually has my camera lens cap off and ready for me when I get there. You never have much time to adjust camera settings, so throughout the day I continually adjust my settings based on the sun to try to have everything ready in case an E shows up. The tree they like is close to our deck so I can't go outside to photograph the E's. I have to crack the sliding glass door and stay inside so I don't scare them away. When their fishing things happen fast, about 9 out of 10 times I'm too late and I get nothing. Today I got lucky. Stein was only here for 90 seconds total, but I was able to get about 60 good photos.
I didn't see him catch the fish, I wasn't even looking at the lake. As I walked across the living room, out of the corner of my eye I saw a wing. As I ran to get the camera I could see he had a fish and it was wildly flopping all over the place. I believe he landed to let it settle down before he flew home with it. Any one that fishes knows how hard it is to hold a flopping fish, Stein held it solidly with only two talons .... it was amazing to see.
If you look close you can see blood flying off the tail as the fish flops around.
Some of these photos are a little dark, but I didn't want to Photoshop them at all, they are just cropped.
These next two photos have been Photoshopped, the originals were too dark to see.
We have a flag banner (not a real flag) hanging off our deck. When he first landed and before I zoomed in on him it was in the corner of the shot. I was in such a hurry I didn't even know I took this shot until later, when I looked at the photos on my computer.