…I believe there is always an exception for any rule. To be honest, this is one of my favorite eagle photos this season. The Bald Eagle just came down from a tree above me, caught the fish right in front of me, and flew away with its prey. I never saw its face, just kept clicking despite it was a butt shot... It is the position in the frame, the subtile light, the spray behind the eagle, and the color of the ice that make me like it.
This photo bears a lot of information. First it proves that the fish were smart because they were hiding under the ice from any predators. Second, the eagles were outsmarting them by cracking the ice with their talons and catching the fish anyway. It also tells the story about how fast it happened. The eagle seems to be already more than a meter away from the hole in the ice it just created, but the bits and pieces of the cracked ice were still flying in the air. If a Bald Eagle starts to fly a curve and is descending at the same time you just know the bird may come down eventually and strike. You never know how and where it may happen. All what the "poor" photographer can do is to keep the autofocus sensor on the eagle's chest. Why the chest? It's on the same focal plane as the eye, which needs to be sharp, and the chances to follow your subject with the sensor are much higher this way. Quite often the eagles just picked up a fish that the Ring-billed Gulls had dropped a few seconds before, and so I wasn't really questioning why the eagles came down over the ice and not over the water. But it wasn't until I reviewed my images at home, that I discovered that the Bald Eagles actually broke the ice in order to catch the fish below. I think it is just amazing and increases my desire to study these wonderful birds of prey even more.
My friend Dawei sent me a message this morning that the Bald Eagles were on the ice around Credit Island in Davenport, Iowa yesterday. I have never been so far south for eagle photography but I decided to give it a try today. I was not disappointed, there were many eagles in the trees and on the ice but I may write about them later this week.
Today I just like to tell you about a big surprise I had. I tried to focus on an eagle sitting on the ice when I saw three White Pelicans coming up the river. Great! I saw a chance to get them in the picture together with the Bald Eagle. All what I had to do was to wait a few more seconds until they would show up in the viewfinder of the camera. Suddenly the pelicans changed their mind, turned around, and moved down the river in the other direction. S#@%!!! I ran sideways into the bushes and fired a few shots through the branches. This is what I got. :-( No, this is of course not a good photo but I wanted to share it with you anyway. I really wonder if this is a sign for an early arrival of spring. With the mild weather we have this year it might be difficult to tell anyway if the winter is over or not ;-) More to come from today's shooting in Davenport…
Today just a shot from my "backyard series". The White-breasted Nuthatch is here all year long. Their yank-yank-yank calls seem to be heard more frequently now. Spring can't be that far anymore… They are usually in company with the Black-capped Chickadees. The nuthatch moves down pretty fast on tree trunks, head first, and they are always a good subject to practice focussing with the long lens. Their relative, the Red-breasted Nuthatch, is here in our area usually only during migration. I snapped a picture of it last November and wrote a post about it (Click HERE if you like to compare both of them).
On my way back from a customer of mine I stopped at several places along the Mississippi and looked for photo opportunities. I found Bald Eagles and Tundra Swans again but because of a strong gray overcast in the afternoon I wasn't so happy with the image quality. The light sucked and so did the colors.
There is only one exception today and this is because it is a "first one" for me. I never had a chance before to capture a picture of a Red-tailed Hawk, despite the fact it is the most common buteo in North America. I saw the bird while driving down a gravel road towards the Green Island Wetlands. It took me four stops before I succeded. The background isn't ideal but I was happy that the hawk was at least not obstructed by a branch and I like the pose of the bird. I know there is room for improvement, but hey, it is my first Red-tailed Hawk… :-)
I'm still analyzing my photos from last weekend at the Mississippi River. The probably most exciting moment to capture an image is when an eagle makes the attempt to lift a fish out of the water. You may think with their incredible large and sharp talons they will never fail but actually that happens quite often. Especially the not fully matured eagles, like this one here, have a higher dropping rate. The good thing is that the photographers get a second chance to make their clicks when the eagle approaches its prey.
Just another image from last weekend. The eagle seems to say, I got my fish, no matter if you guys have me in focus or not…
It was another wonderful day at the Mississippi River today. The temperatures were not nearly as low as yesterday and that made the shooting even more fun. The Bald Eagles hunted for the fish again and we had many opportunities to fill our memory cards. I focused today on handholding the camera with the long lens. Of course not the whole time, there is a reason that the Sigma 50-500 is called the "BIGMA"… ;-) I had more keepers than yesterday but have still too many pics out of focus. I really like to know how the other guys with their faster f/2.8 or f/4 lenses perform. I will probably post a few more pictures in the next days, so please stay tuned and have a great week!
Let me say that first. It was a great day at lock & dam #14 down in Le Claire, Iowa today. The light doesn't get much better for eagle photography. It was cold, but still manageable. Burt and his friends had plenty of fish to throw in the river (thank you guys!), and the eagles followed their invitation. Many other photographers had lined up to use this opportunity for eagle photography in good light. I always enjoy meeting other photographers that love nature like I do. There is always interesting conversation and the best part that I recognized is that the experienced photographers are really helpful to anybody who is new to wildlife photography.
I have been an active runner and bicycle rider for most of my life. I have always trained hard and know exactly the feeling after a break in the process of training. Everything seemed to be harder and more difficult after not running for two weeks for whatever reason. This is how I felt today. I haven't done any wildlife photography since two weeks and during the first 500 shots today I felt very clumsy. I had a hard time to obtain focus. I could blame the cold temperatures or low battery level that seemed to slow down focus speed, but I know this is just in my mind. It is the lack of exercising every day that makes the difference. Many shots ended up in the trash can today but I'm always happy if I come back with one photo that is different or slightly better than anything before.
I like this photo because of the gorgeous light on the feathers against a flawless blue sky. As much as I hate blue sky without clouds for my landscape photography, I don't think it's a bad background for an eagle in flight.
I'm still in process to review my whole photo library. I put that on my To-Do-List for this winter. It takes time, can be very boring sometimes, but I really hope the process of analyzing, sorting out, and evaluating my photos will help me to become a better photographer. The best part of this "winter task" is the fact that I discover some photos in my library that have the potential for more than being just documentary shots.
This one of a Snowy Egret, getting ready for the night among hundreds of, what I believe are Willets, is one of the images I have rediscovered. It is the type of environmental portrait of a critter that I enjoy and where I try go with my wildlife photography. The photo was made in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve at the Pacific coast just minutes before sunset.
