Bald Eagle Pictures

Such majestic birds.

I was only able to get one shot, before one of the Eagles flew.

This Eagle stayed for a few minutes and let me move around for several good shots.

He was giving me the "evil eye" watching every move I made.

Look at the size of those talons!

After giving me this stern stare, the Bald Eagle flew off.

Wonderful shots Gras!

I absolutely never, ever tire of seeing them - these are gorgeous photos, Gras!

Excellent photos, Gras.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Gras,

Fantastic shots! I love Bald Eagles!

Thanks for sharing all those pics!

Marilyn

I was driving through a residential neighborhood this afternoon when I spotted a Bald Eagle in a tree. The tree was in the back yards near the corner of four lots. I stopped in front of one of the houses and started taking pictures. This is a wide angle to give perspective.

A little telephoto and a little cropping, and the eagle stands out a little better.

Beautiful Bird Gras. Thanks so much for stopping to take his photo. That was a long zooooooom!

Janet

Gras,

Great pics! It's wonderful that you were able to capture the shot! Thanks for sharing!

I took a lot of pictures similar to the first one and got in the truck. As I went around the corner, there was an even better view. The only catch, it was a residential driveway, on a street with no parking. As you can see from the following pictures, no one chased me off. There were four Magpies attacking the Eagle. While I was taking pictures, the Magpies would quite attacking. So, the Eagle wasn't bothered by my presence.

Gras,

He probably welcomed the picture taking! lol

I bet he didn't like being bothered by those Magpies!

The sky is so beautiful bright blue!

Thanks for always sharing with us in the lower 48, a little bit of Alaska!

Marilyn

I was expecting someone to come out of the house shouting. There was a crazy man in the driveway. A tripod on the hood of his truck, with the camera pointed over the top house.
But, I just couldn't resist a few quick shots, like this one.

Going to 12X ? ? (= to 420 mm lens on a 35mm camera), and cropping the center out of the original picture. This is the result.

The blue sky Marilynbeth was admiring, had been very gloomy, dark, heavily overcast, until about 4 P.M. So, when the sun came out, I took a drive looking for birds. It was quite worth while.

Very nice pics Gras!

Fantastic, Gras!!! When I crop something that much, it is never so clear as yours - what's your secret?

Probably a fourth-year bird, as it doesn't have a fully white tail yet.

Resin

The secret on cropping - My new Panasonic Lumix camera is shooting @10.1 mega pixels. The higher the pixel number the more the picture can be cropped, and still be clear and sharp. Higher pixel number is just as valuable as a longer telephoto lens! But, I re-size images to 640 x 480 before uploading. Because, an uncropped shot will take a full seven (7) minutes to up load, if it isn't re-sized.

This is the same image, as the last one above, before it was cropped.

Resin confirmed my conclusion on the birds age. The black on the tail wasn't noticeable, until I was at home looking at the pictures.

While fish are the primary food of Bald Eagles, they will feed on small mammals, particularly Snowshoe Hare. The Hares are white in the winter, and the Eagles sometime take cats and small dogs, particularly white ones. So, I do not let my white cat out at this time of the year, when food is scarce.

My Sony shoots at 10 mega pixels as well - I think my problem is in lack of skill!! Those shots are truly marvelous. I got one eagle shot the other day, but nothing to write home about. I was actually taking photos of a pond and the willows, and darned if this eagle didn't suddenly appear in the tree. I tried to get closer, but I was slogging through a bog (I exaggerate slightly, but it was pretty sloppy and the shoes I was wearing were split open on the outer sides!) and he took off before I could really zero in. Note the crow in the photo - the eagle and several crows all sat together in the tree.

And here the crow has decided to tell the eagle a thing or two.

Nice shots Murmur!

Today, I got close to a Bald Eagle, that didn't fly away. Appropreately, it was next to Eagle Rriver. This image is not cropped, but was 12X telephoto.

Well, Gras, that is a WOW!!!!!

Murmur, my guess is the crows are harassing the Eagle. Crows will often gang up on a bird of prey, in an effort to drive it out of the area. That is what the Magpies were doing, when I took the pictures above. You were in good and close, but the picture was back lighted. Often there is no choice in lighting, with wildlife photograph. I just shot as many shots as possible and a range of settings. With digital photography it doesn't cost anything to dump 99 shot for one great shot.

Look closely at this Eagle's eye. Then look closely at the eye in the next image.

Sorry: I'll try to resize a d re do!.

This message was edited Mar 11, 2007 9:48 PM

In this picture the Eagle has the inner eye lid closed. Look closely and you can see the pupil, through the translucent eye lid. I got two pic's with the eye lid closed out of forty total. At first I thought they were blurred shots.

Darn, the copyright is on it.

Eye open uncropped shot.

I hope this shows the translucent inner eye lid closed.

I see it! Thanks Gras!

That's so incredible, Gras, it gives me goosebumps!!!

I've seen crows harass eagles before too, but for awhile they were all just sitting quietly so this time I wasn't sure. And you're right about my photo being backlit - the sun was behind the trees I was looking up and into, slowly beginning the process of sundown. I got this camera in October and I've taken over 6400 pictures!!! Obviously, I've deleted a ton, but I'm astounded when the camera tells me what number I'm at!

Gras,

Post #3269755, looks fantastic! The sky is more of a deeper blue and the Eagle is sharper & clearer!

Gras,

All your pics are excellent! Thanks for getting the shots and sharing!

I esp. like this one that you captured!

Murmur,

Great pics! I really like the one that the Crow is harassing the Eagle! Thanks for sharing!

Marilyn

The copyright covered the Eagle's eye in the first try, to show it blinking. So I was playing around and took the second picture of it blinking the inner eye lid, and paired it with the picture just before the blink. It is easier to compare with the picture side by side.