It snowed last night which often means the bald eagles decide to stay hunkered down the next day, but I decided to take a chance and visit Eleven Mile Canyon anyway. I was wise to set up the camera before I left home, the R7 is a complicated beast to be fiddling with when the eagles are flying around you! I almost always leave the ISO set on auto but at home I noticed as I aimed the camera at the big screen that the viewfinder was completely black. After a bit of confusion I noticed I had it set to ISO 640, not auto. That might have cost me an image in the field!
As I pulled into the canyon I noticed one of our nesting pair standing guard in a tree above their nest. I wasn’t expecting them to return to the nest until mating season but I remembered that they were there early in previous years too. My theory is that they need to return to their nest during the migration to make sure another young mating pair doesn’t take it over. My first sighting wasn’t very lucrative, the sun was just coming up and the sky was very bright with little light in the canyon and on the subject. The contrast in that harsh situation was just too much to deal with so I didn’t hang around that scene long, no sense pushing a bad situation when there might be better ahead. As it turned out, rounding the big bend just a short way up the road helped a lot. Looking back downstream the light was much better and I was able to get a few shots of the second eagle. He eventually took off and I spotted yet a third on the big dead tree at the end of the wide spot and got a few more nice ones there. Several more sightings worked out well on the trip back downstream and a couple more on a quick jog back upstream. All in all it was a great day! Hope you all enjoy a few more of the pictures from today’s adventure!
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You have a true gift. Your photos are stunning, capturing so much detail.
Thank you so much!