The Daily Eagle

Day 161: Earlier this morning, I took the tripod over into the pasture and happened to notice Mr. Eagle sitting in the top of the tallest foreground cottonwood, a favorite place for both eagles and ravens. The light was poor at that hour, and consequently the images were somewhat lacking in quality, especially given a digital zoom factor of 95-118x. After the sun was fully up, I put my boots back on and went across the road again. Mr. E was still in his tree, so I began a slow approach.

Now when you're creeping up on an eagle, "slow" is the operative word. It took me half an hour, feet freezing in rubber boots, to get into position for this shot. It's still a strong zoom (74x, if memory serves), but it brought out the detail in his feathers and more importantly, his eye. The trick was finding a spot where he didn't have a branch obscuring his face and then waiting for him to turn his head into a position where his eye wasn't in shadow. I thought I might get a little closer, but my next movement sent him into flight, but he'll be back. I never tire of these magnificent birds even though they're quite common in my area.