Thursday, January 21, 2010

Day 6: The Iowa Bald Eagles (Final)

The ice storm has come and gone. It took me 20 minutes to "de thaw" my ice encapsulated car.

Of course, I just had to go visit the eagles one more time before I left for Rockford, IL today.  When I arrived, I was the only one there.... just me and the eagles PLUS more overcast, grey, ugly skies! Is there a sun?

Over the next hour or so, 6-8 people showed up including two guys from California with 500f4s.

There were only 6 eagles or so in the area (that I could see) but there was a fair amount of action for the small number of eagles. There were 4-5 eagle fishing events... some very close, some far away in the middle of the Mississippi River.  We did have two eagles take off.... one with a fish and the other chasing him.. the one eagle dropped the fish and the other eagle snagged the fish in mid-air! I do have some frames of the event! I have to look closely and see what I captured.

This location for eagles is awesome!  You are very close to them... and even with 300mm, you will get a few images to be proud of!

The eagles are there until early March then they start to migrate back up north for the spring/summer/fall...until they come back in December...

If you love bird photography, love eagles and want to be a personal witness to one of the most majestic birds you will ever see.. then the Iowa Mississippi eagles is the ticket!  Buy your ticket and smile the whole time!

I will post 3 pics today.... one of 3 eagles in an icy tree this morning... an adult having a snack.. and a red -tailed hawk who just showed up chasing gulls.... I get the impression that the hawk knew his picture was being taken? Ya think?  CLICK on each pic to enlarge!

Thanks for sharing my Iowa eagle experience...  I have 150 GB of images to sort, catalog and post-process! I hope to have some "finished images" posted here this weekend!

Mark











1 comment:

  1. Great captures Mark, specially the hawk ,... definitely sizing you up...

    Frank&Lori

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