204Ruger

We did a catch & release this evening on a nice Bald Eagle. Diane took a good picture for the hazy conditions we had this evening. The Eagle was about 350yds away & we used a Sony CyberShot on 15x zoom. We got some pics of a pair of Ospreys yesterday but they were 400yds or so out. They didn't turn out so well.

Good pic Glen.

A while back I mentioned somewhere in here how the bald eagle population has boomed around here. I've seen groups of up to 10 eagles in a group feeding on dead carcasses just off the pavement. The young bald eagles don't get a white head and tail until they're about 3 years old, making them hard to tell between an an eagle and a turkey vulture when their in the air. If you want to see some eagles up close, I'd recommend an 8-9 hour drive up from Ohio some weekend when the eagles are migrating (December) through Wabasha, MN. Stop at the National Eagle Center, where they have 3 live birds on display, not usually in cages, but standing right next to you with their leg chained to a big rock. They stand about stomach high on me, and seem to look right through you with their piercing eyes. Really cool. It was a $6 entry to the museum style building last time I was there. The highlight was an hourly lecture where they feed the eagle dead baby chickens right in front of the audience. The center is located on the Mississippi on a spot that most always has open water all winter, and hundreds of eagles make it their Northern most home due to the good fishing.

http://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/

Cool link Baba!! Thanks!! That would be a neat place to go see.

They're pretty common in the Puget Sound area, Always neet when we see them.

You're Welcome rpknaz.

Love seeing those things! Quite a few come to the Columbia River & tributaries in the fall & winter. Right along with the salmon & steelhead runs... Go figure! A couple of times I've seen a bald eagle bully an osprey into giving up a fish. Amazing to watch.

Saw a huge golden eagle a while back too. Enormous bird...

I need to work on getting a decent photo of an eagle. Congrats on the nice shot at the start of this thread Glen!

Thanks Guy. I would enjoy seeing those pics if you can get em!!

Guy M wrote:Love seeing those things! Quite a few come to the Columbia River & tributaries in the fall & winter. Right along with the salmon & steelhead runs... Go figure! A couple of times I've seen a bald eagle bully an osprey into giving up a fish. Amazing to watch.

Saw a huge golden eagle a while back too. Enormous bird...

I need to work on getting a decent photo of an eagle. Congrats on the nice shot at the start of this thread Glen!

I saw a Golden Eagle last year in Central Oregon during a rat hunt, don't see those very often. If you're ever on the west side of the Cascade Range, the Skagit River has been noted to have a bunch of them.

HTH,

Very neat,

I'd like to see one out in the wild!

In our yard last summer. My wife took this with a Nikon D200 and Sigma 150-500 mm telephoto at 500mm. This shot is about 100 yards away and very high in an old cottonwood tree. The second picture is a crop. There are a couple of nests within about 1/4 mile of our place and we see them all the time, year round.



We live in Washington State on a spit of land in a bend of the Skagit river. I have seen as many as six eagles at a time while standing in my front yard. They are as common as starlings at times.

Bill.

Nice pic. You can really see the hook on the beak!!

Sorry I don't have any pics. This thread goes right along with my last one. Living here in Central California we don't have a lot of eagles, but I do see a pair of Goldens near a spot I shoot-they are huge, gorgeous birds. The Baldies are showing up more and more all the time in the hills and lakes where I fish. As I mentioned in my last post, I watch them catch the trout right out of the Kings River. They seem to flaunt their catch in front of us jealous fisherman. It makes for a great day outdoors-watching those beautiful birds.

There is a pair that raise a bunch of young on the river that is about 300 yards from our office at work. They love the old dead cotton-wood tree's. A few years ago a coworker and I were going from our office down to our diesel shop. We noticed an adult bald eagle gliding over the couple thousand geese on the old sand pit about 30 yards off the road. So we stopped and watched, it was training the young how to look for injured geese, at least that was what we surmised. The geese would duck thier heads as the eagle went over flying into the stiff wind that was blowing, it was like watching sports fans do the wave. We watched as one young would follow the adult then it would land in the corn field between the water and the river and another one would take its turn. The other adult set perched high in an old dead cotton-wood along the river, watching. They never did go after any of the geese but it sure was an amazing thing to watch.

Fortunately we have a lot of bald eagles around here, they look really amazing against a dark blue sky. Occassionally there is a golden around, they are a huge bird.

What a coincidence, as we set here shooting the breeze in our office a few minutes ago we heard the sound of a lot of geese getting off the water. We went out on the steps and sure enough there was a bald eagle flying over and the geese were going in every direction. As he was going by the office there were 4 of us watching him, he made a sharp turn and looked to be trying for reverse. Not sure what t hat was about, but one of the other guys wondered if it wasn't due to a feather falling from one of the geese.

One of my co-workers said that there were 3 of them bugging the geese on Monday but he said they never went after any, just like the one did today.


Add on:
Well, he came back by and did it again so I thought I would get a picture of him in the act. He's just to the right of the power pole in the pic.


Then he gave up on them and started soaring to find a different food source.