Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 1: Return to Iowa!

We made it!  It snowed overnight in Joliet (about 3 inches), short of the predicted 6 inches. We left Joliet ... headed to Le Claire, IA via I-80W. I-80W was clear and dry for the most part. No travel issues at all. Smooth sailing!

We arrived in Le Claire around 1:00pm CST. We went straight to the eagle location.  It was snowing pretty good the whole time we were there (about 2 hours). There were 5-6 eagles in the area. They were hunkered down because of the weather but on 3 occasions we were treated to some eagle fishing, some eagle aerial play with other eagles, an eagle chasing a gull....but the snow made photography a challenge.. keeping the snow off the lens, off the view finder, autofocusing on the BIF through the snow... I used manual focus for some portrait shots in the trees.

Tomorrow's weather calls for AM Clouds/PM Sun. I am excited about seeing the sun in Iowa tomorrow for the first time!!

Stay tuned!

The pic below is a snowy pic of an adult bald eagle landing through the snow in a tree. Click on the pic for a larger view.

2 comments:

  1. Nice shot, Mark! Sounds like everything so far has turned out well for you.
    I'll bet your glad you made the decision to go. You and you son have fun shooting eagles tomorrow. I will be watching for further posts to your blog. Dena

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  2. This is an awesome shot! I love it! Bravo!

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