Bald Eagle - Full Crop NY S47 Band

I've seen a few eagles with a noticeably full crop, but none as pronounced as this bird today.

The bird was a banded eagle, from New York, with a (blue state) band of S47.





read on for more images, etc.













I don't know, if these aren't the utmost examples of what a bird and a full crop are, then maybe nothing can explain it via photos!

It was foggy most of the day, drizzled a little and there was like 10 minutes that the blue sky peeked through in the smallest patch, and these S47 shots were probably the best of the day for me since they show off such a unique thing even in the bland light...

p.s. this bird has a GPS transmitter, and you can see the antenna in a few of the photos.

-happy shooting,
Jon
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Bald Eagle - Full Crop NY S47 Band

Susquehanna River MD - Oct 18 2009

Mid-October is not nearly peak for bald eagles at the Dam on the Susquehanna River yet, but it's good there.

This past Sunday it was scheduled to be rainy ALL day, like 90% chance each and every hour according to weather.com. I was so jazzed to go shooting that I woke up around 4am and headed out to another spot on the eastern shore of Maryland and then later wound up at the river.

I counted 50 eagles across the river without even trying in like 15 seconds.






Read on for more including a video...




Virtually no one else was at the river to see the eagles when I got there before noon. Within a few hours a handful of folks showed up. It was a slow day, but this time of year slow is still awesome.

Myself and others spotted an adult eagle with an antenna (ie GPS transmitter) - I think the standard is to track location data and upload it once or twice a day to conserve battery power. If you click to view the larger version you can see the antenna coming out of the back of this eagle

There were also a few banded birds, including this one with a green state band (I forget which state that is, MA/Mass. maybe?):


And this adult that had a blue state band (NY):


For me photographywise the highlight was this bald eagle flying by with a large catfish:





Also, one of the resident Peregrine Falcons flew up river too fast for me to catch a shot early in the day, then later (maybe same bird) one flew by and circled overhead for a brief moment and I managed an ID shot, nothing spectular:



I put together a some video from the morning of the eagles along the water, and as the sirens sounded to warn everyone to take to higher ground as the power generation was about to start. I'm a bit upset with myself because a guy was following me around and kept talking as I was trying to record some clean video. I should have spoke up and or walked away - even if just for 5 minutes, but I didn't. And the guy kept saying something like every 20 seconds whenever I'd hit the record button. So I had to chop up the video and remove audio completely from the last clip.... Fortunately the sirens in the video was still cool.


(note it says 11/18/2009 in the video-text but it was shot on 10/18/2009...)

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Susquehanna River MD - Oct 18 2009

Octobers Past

I took most of September off from Flickr's daily grind of posting and visiting friends photos... And now I am back at it, posting, etc.

October's going to be awesome. Fall is such a great time in this area (Maryland, Virginia, Delaware - New England!, etc. The birds, the foliage, the cool weather, the later sunrises and earlier sunsets - I just love those changes.

3 Years ago I made my first trip to the Susquehanna River in search of eagles and it was a day like none other, with a real drama that unfolded revealing the character present in so many of the photographers there that day (and DNR's extremely slow response).


Read on for more....


We thought that eagle must have hit the power lines and broke a wing and he then drifted down river.



He was left for dead, then rescued and then a couple of days later at a rehab facility deemed too injured to be rescued...

That same day I got one of my all time favorite bald eagle photos. Since that day I've been a ton of times to the river to see the eagles. Peak time for them (mostly migratory eagles) is Thanksgiving to Christmas.



Some of the other places that I've been in Octobers past are Shenandoah National Park, where late October is good for foliage



and Mason Neck State Park in VA where some fog and a walk on the 'beach' gifted me with an brief encounter with a red fox



And some god-beams peaking through the trees early during a walk at Mason Neck



The river and eagles is probably the highlight of Fall here in Maryland, watch the leaves turn and fall and the eagles arrive, hungry for fish, and less afraid of human proximity than locals - it's a great thing.



I like to go with the flow, and plan for trips and get out shooting a lot, often. But when sunrise is earlier than 6am or the day's heat bring temps at or above 95 degrees I tend to save my energy. But it is the welcome Fall season where heat fades, the sun rises later and the days bristle with color that I make that extra push to get out and shoot.



It's October 1st and the next two months are going to be awesome. I just can't wait. Be it 100 miles away or 10 miles away, there's always something to search for in Fall...........





-Happy Shootin'
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Octobers Past

Foggy photos of Eagles on the Susquehanna River

I managed to have some good luck at the river this morning. Usually the location is great for eagle action, closer shots of birds eating a fish or gazing in to the river.

This day I wandered down the path that parallels the river, and spent some time watching the birds and sunrise.



I probably over-baked this image, but it WAS sunrise...





The above are all at or about 400mm and shot from a tripod.

Here's a handheld photo taken the same day. The fly by was extra special because even though there were a bunch of photographers around to watch the eagles, no one else got this guy coming in. I had left the big group of people and walked down river a bit.



The above is one of my favorites from last Fall at the river.

The eagle perched in a fairly nearby tree, and was a bit nervous. Maybe he was hungry and picked one of the first good trees he spotted to land in.



I did my best to not spook him, and got a handful of photos of him while her perched. But within a minute or two, he took off and landed in a tree that put his perch about 5 times higher.



This past fall (2008) at the river was a good one. I'm looking forward to going again 6 months or so.

-Nikographer / Jon
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Foggy photos of Eagles on the Susquehanna River

Conowingo Dam - Outakes 9/28/2008

I was at the Dam on Sunday 9/28/2008. The action was pretty low. In the 7 or so hours I was there only one bird landed in the trees with a fish in a visible spot. A few others did fly in to those trees but they landed too high up and in the back of the tree line.

Here's the shot I posted already:


Read on for some of the other birds that were there and some photos...



While the day was slow, there were a number of other birds spotted. These aren't quite the quality of what I normally post, but here they are for background on some of the variety present at the Dam along the Susquehanna River in Maryland.

Peregrine Falcon:





Bald Eagles:




Black Vultures:


An Osprey:


American Kestrel:



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Conowingo Dam - Outakes 9/28/2008