Watching The Eagles Enjoy Lunch

On Tuesday I went down to the Wabash River to watch the bald eagles enjoy some lunch. I knew that the wind direction was right along with the fact that it was fairly strong. That meant that I should get some decent photos of the eagles if they grabbed anything out of the Wabash. The sky was starting to clear too in case I made any photos above the tree line. It really was the perfect day to get out and make some eagle photos. I lucked out early and made the photo above as an eagle was giving me a fly by.

Super Bowl Week

For some reason I think of the eagles during the super bowl week. This year that means a little more since the eagles are in the super bowl. In the past though I have made my best eagle photos of the year right around the super bowl. This year so far it has been no different. Hopefully I can make a few more interesting photos of them before the week is out.

Back To Reality

Tuesday was an unusual day. Normally you don’t get that many looks at the eagles. I went back down to the river Wednesday and had a usual day with the eagles. I basically stared at these three eagles in the tree the entire time. The only thing that changed was their position in the tree. As I pulled in the eagle in the lower right of the frame swooped out of the tree and grabbed a fairly large fish. It sat in that position fairly covered for a long time eating it, but there were no photos. Days like Wednesday really help you appreciate the good days like Tuesday even more.

You Need A Catalyst

When the eagles are stuck in the tree you really need something to get them moving. Once they start moving they will actually do something. In the photo above you can see one of the eagles getting the other two out of the tree and into the air. From there the photography was good until they settled down again. Once in the air they started chasing each other, and then eventually competing for food. When I see the eagles in the tree I am usually hoping for something to get them out.

More Photos From My Day

As you can tell I had a lot of fun photographing the eagles. Early on I made a photo of one in a closer tree top seemingly posing for me. Then as it circled around to land in the tree with the others it gave me a nice fly by. From there I had to wait for another eagle to come through and chase them all from the tree. Once in the air they had some fun chasing each other before finally finding some food on the surface. As you can see from the photos the food was rather soft so they were having trouble getting it out in one piece. It was fun watching two of the eagles trying to get it. One would miss and then another one would be coming in for a try. One of the photos below is of them passing each other in this process. My series ends with a very young eagles having some fun on the windy day. I made the photo at the bottom of the post thinking that it was practice for when the circles came lower. What I didn’t realize what that the eagle was really having fun and the circles started going up. The eagle climbed high enough that it just became a speck in the sky. It was pretty cool to watch it slowly ascend. This week I have had one great day at the river and one bad day just watching them in the tree. Hopefully I can have at least one more good day this week. It is the super bowl week after all.