Winter Eagle Trips

Photograph taken with canon 55 - 250 mm lens

During the wintertime, I did not get out as much as I would have liked.  However, I did take several trips to my favorite bald eagle areas.  In the beginning of February, I took off some days from work for my birthday, which gave me some opportunities to get out and take some photographs.  During my trips in February, the eagle counts were amazing.  I was seeing at least over twenty a day.  Several days there were at least ten or more eagles in view of my camera.   It was remarkable to see.  I had not seen numbers like that in at least two years.

Photograph taken with bower 650 - 1300 mm lens

  

Even with the high numbers, I did not manage many good photos.  At that point, in the winter I was still only using my Bower 650-1300 mm manual focus lens. So, photographing birds in flight was difficult, unless they were close enough where I could use my shorter lenses.  I did manage a shot through a hole in thick brush, of a pair of full mature eagles together on a branch.  The immature eagle photograph atop the post was an old photograph that I found on my memory card when I started the camera up for the first time in a year.

Photograph taken with sigma 150 - 600 mm contemporary lens

Towards the end of March, I purchased my new Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens. I had a few days off from work, and I took a couple of more trips out for eagles. The numbers were drastically lower than the prior month.  I was lucky if I was seeing more than five eagles in a trip.  The one day, I spent almost eight hours out and did not see anything within range.  I did take one photograph of an eagle sitting in a tree with the new lens, but that was about it.  (The photo is above)

Photograph taken with sigma 150 - 600 mm contemporary lens

I did not really get to test the auto focus lens on eagles this year. During the down times when I was not seeing eagles I did try to take some photographs of the smaller birds that were coming to feed at the feeders that are set up.  I did manage some shots of black cap chickadees and nuthatches.  I have included two of those photographs.  I am really looking forward to next winter's eagle season.  Hopefully, I will be able to pull off more action shots, now that I have a long range auto focus lens.

Photograph taken with sigma 150 - 600 mm contemporary lens  

Since my winter outings, I have taken several trips out to the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area, hoping to photograph waterfowl that are migrating through our region this time of year.  It has allowed me to get somewhat used to the new lens, and how it functions.  In the next posts, I will cover those trips, and then I will be caught up thus far.  Until next time.

Low Bald Eagle Count Last Few Days

I traveled out to the reservoir the last two days and both days I only spotted two eagles each day.  This is way less then the previous weeks count.  The water level has gone done a lot and maybe that is part of the reason for the low numbers.  I also went looking along the Delaware River and the Lackawaxen River and didn't see any eagles.  The ice build up along the rivers is crazy this year.  I can’t remember the last time the rivers were so covered in ice. 

I did get to look over my pictures from Friday and almost all of them were overexposed.  I did however do some post processing on a few of the photographs to at least show what I got to see.  At one point there were two eagles together next to each other and one of them was dipping his head in the water I guess trying to fish along the ice.  Another eagle landed about 10-20 feet above me, but the sun was behind him so he was back-lit.  However to me it was a neat angle and the photo still had enough light so the eagle was not just a silhouette.  

Last week was a very good week and hopefully the bald eagle count will go back up as this week continues, so I can see more of these magnificent birds.  Enjoy the photographs.  Until next time. 

Bitter Cold, Great Day for Bald Eagles

Yesterday was a slow day out at the reservoir.  There were some bald eagles, but they were staying put, and were to far away for a shot.  Today however was much better.  At one point there were eight eagles in one tree together.  They were also much more active and landing on the ice.  However the super bright light was an issue.  A few clouds would have been good today.  The sunlight was causing problems not only overexposing the eagles, but the ice in the background.  The lighting was just so harsh not many of the photographs were coming out.  Not sure if I could have done anything better but there is always next time.  

The bitter cold was the worst part of today.  The wind chill was in the negative thirties and my fingers were freezing.  I do were gloves but they have open fingers to allow me to grip the camera and to focus the lens.  This weekend looks bad for photography.  There is a winter storm and ice coming so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to photograph anything.  

It will give me the chance to look at the images I took today though and post them.  Hopefully some of them will come out and not be overexposed.  The photographs on this post are more from a couple days ago and are more or less a sequence as the eagle came in for a landing.  I hope everyone enjoys them.  Feel free to comment.  Until next time.     

Cold Morning Well Worth It

I arrived at the reservoir at sunrise today and the eagles were there again.  When I first got there it was still a little to dark to be photographing eagle’s but they were putting on a show.  No one else was there to see it either.  It was beautiful, the fog was rolling off the water, the sun was peering over the tree line, and both ducks and eagles were present.  It was hard at first to photograph them due to the fog, but it started to clear off once the sun was up.  What made it really challenging was the cold.  The thermometer was reading negative eleven at the reservoir.  However the cold did not seem to be affecting the eagles.  

I was not counting how many eagles were there but it was close to a dozen or so, plus plenty of mergansers and black ducks.  I am Looking forward to going back tomorrow for another chance to see it all again.  The one photograph is from yesterday of the eagle rubbing his beak on the branch.  The other one is one of the flying shots from today.  Hopefully ill get a chance to look them all over and post more soon.  Enjoy the photographs, and feel free to comment.  Until Next time.   

Bald Eagles!

Yesterday while I was out running an errand I passed by the reservoir and there were ten bald eagles on the ice.  So I went back to the reservoir in the afternoon and only saw two eagles.  None were close enough to photograph.  So this morning I went back and there were eagles everywhere.  They were finally here and they were cooperating.  They were on the ice, flying around, and close enough to photograph.  Some were even close enough to photograph with my 250 mm lens.  I’m hoping they stick around because the weather for the next few days is supposed to be good.  This year has been a slow year for eagles in the area, at least for me and I was so happy they were finally here.  There was one eagle today that was acting funny.  He was rubbing his beak up and down a branch.  Not sure why but it was interesting to watch.  Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day.  Until next time.

Eagle Photographs from Break

So far this bald eagle season has been a bit of a let down.  The weather has been crazy.  There is tons of snow and ice, and it has kept me busy.  I did get a chance to get out today, but only saw one bald eagle. But I do have some images from last break that I never got the chance to upload.  Last break I had a great outing where there were eagles on the same side of the road as me, and I only needed my 255 mm lens to photograph them.  Also they were feeding on the ground so I got plenty of opportunities to photograph them.  I am hoping I get a few more chances this week to get some photographs.

Hope everyone enjoys the photographs. Until next time.

Cold Weather Woes

The cold weather has been helpful for keeping bald eagles confined to the places that have open water which helps make it easier to know where you have the best chance to see them.  But the crazy weather has also led to me not being able to get out much because of snow, ice, rain, and freezing temperatures.  But I hopefully will be able to get out a few more times before I go back to college next week. 

Because I have not really had many chances to photograph anything I was looking through some of my old photographs from last year and realized I did not upload some of the images.  So I decided to upload them now and hopefully soon I will have some new photographs.  One of the photographs is an immature bald eagle, and the other photograph is of a red squirrel.  I also noticed that I have been having a problem with lighting of my pictures from when they are on my computer and when I upload them.  Sometimes they appear lighter and other times there dark.  I am not sure why but I will try to fix this in further posts. Until next time.

Happy New Year

Last break was very disappointing.  I really didn’t see anything I could photograph.  But this winter break has been much better.  So far I have seen many bald eagles, and an assortment of ducks, including common mergansers, black ducks, and hooded mergansers.  It has been a very good start to break and I am hoping it continues.

It started slowly this break but since the temperatures have dropped and the amount of open water has diminished the bald eagle population is contained in a smaller section of the reservoirs that I frequent.  I have plans to update some of my pages because they are getting outdated.  I plan to change some of the reviews to more relevant cameras and some other updates. 

 

 

I uploaded a few of the bald eagle photographs that I have gotten recently and I am also uploading a photograph of a common merganser that I took.  I was a little upset with myself that I overexposed many of the bald eagle photographs but it wasn’t so bad.

 

 I also will now be uploading full resolution photographs on flickr because they now offer 1TB of space.  So I will upload the full shots to flickr.  Hope you enjoy the photographs.  Until next time.        

Back Home and Enjoying The Wildlife

It has been a long time since I have uploaded anything but this semester at college was the busiest I have ever had.  I have been out of school for about a week now and I can finally get working on my blog again.  I spent the last two days going to the Bashakill Wetlands and trying to find anything to photograph.  I was quite surprised by all the wildlife I have seen.  I even got some photographs of Cedar Waxwings, which I haven’t seen in years.  I also saw snapping turtles laying eggs.  But that’s just the beginning I also saw a Bald Eagle, an Osprey, a Red Tailed Hawk, Great Blue Herons, Warblers, Oriels, Tree and Barn Swallows, Geese,  and many other species of birds and turtles.  Plus a lot of Dragonflies and Tiger Swallowtail butterflies.  I’m hoping that I can get out a couple days every week and get some great photographs this summer.  Over the next few days I will be processing the images I have taken and I will upload them soon.  

Back at College

I'm sorry that I was unable to update my blog for a while. I really wanted to but I have not been able to get my mac laptop on the school's network. So I finally decided to download some software on my other laptop so I could work on my photographs. These photographs were all from the last week I had at home before I went back to college.

I had a lot of fun on my break photographing Bald Eagles.  It is always my favorite time of year when the eagles are around.  I do have another break in a few weeks and I have heard that there are even more eagles there than when I was home.  So I am really looking forward to it.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and I will try and update again soon. 

Immature Bald Eagles

The last few days have been excellent for bald eagle sightings.  Today was not the best day but I did see a few eagles.  I have also been seeing plenty of sea gulls, black ducks, and common mergansers.  I also keep seeing a kingfisher in the same spot everyday, but so far he has not been close enough to photograph.  

I’m hoping tomorrow will be a better day.  I only have one week till I go back to college.  So hopefully I will be able to get a few good shots before I head back.  Then I have a break about 4 weeks later.  Which should be prime eagle season where I live. 

I will try and post a couple more photographs within the next few days.  I hope everyone enjoys the photographs.  Feel free to comment on the photographs or leave questions.

Bald Eagle Season Has Started

My father and I decided to take a trip over to the lake yesterday and I was surprised to see so many Bald Eagles.  A couple days earlier we had only seen one, and where happy.  Over the last couple days I have seen more than 10 everyday.  I was lucky that one Eagle landed on the old wooden structure that's in the lake.  So I walked in and took dozens of photographs.

It has been really fun watching them fly around.  I have really enjoyed these last few days and I'm hoping that it continues.  I will be taking trips out to the lake everyday unless there is bad weather. Both of these photographs were taken with my Bower 650-1300mm manual focus lens.

I also took some pictures of the moon last night and I'm working on processing them.  Also I tried to take pictures of the stars because I read about being able to see Saturn.  I'm going to try again tonight if the sky is clear.  I hope you all enjoy the photographs, and I hope you all have a happy holidays.

Last Week

I spent most of my week home at the Bashakill Wetlands.  It was pretty nice out but most mornings there was a fog that made it hard to photograph.  I still took thousands of photographs and I am narrowing it down to my best images now.  Within the next few days I will hopefully get a chance to post some of the photographs that I took.  Over the period of the week I saw many different duck species including, mergansers, mallards, and wood ducks.  Plus plenty of Canadian Geese.  I also saw some Swan's but was unable to get a photo.  Near the end of the week I saw a couple of Great Blue Heron's but was unable to get a good photograph.  Also I took many pictures of Red winged black birds and tree swallows.  Plus there was an abundance of turtles.  Also I saw my first snake of the year, which I believe was a ribbon snake.  Scared me when it brushed passed my feet.  Can't forget that I saw a couple eagles on my trips, but the number has drastically dropped since January.  I guess I was going to see a couple since there is a nest there, but I also saw a couple immature bald eagles that aren't nesting there.   It was a really odd sight to see some of these species so early, but it was extremely warm for this time of year. 

Two Weeks Until Vacation

I cannot wait for two weeks from now.  I will finally be able to get away from the college and head home.  I plan on spending a lot of my time off trying to get some good photographs.  Hopefully the eagles will still be there when I get home.  I am worried though because it has been such a mild winter that most will probably be going north.  But I know of a few nests that will hopefully produce for me.  Sorry it has been so long since I have updated but I was sick and unable to post.  Now that I am feeling better I will hopefully get a chance to take some types of photographs. 

Back to College

Eagle Landing

Now that I am back to college I won’t have many opportunities for wildlife photography but I will have chances for other types of photography.  It makes me depressed to know that I will not have a chance until March, to go home and photograph bald eagles.  To make matters worse it was just getting really good and I had to leave to go back to school.  

 

After browsing other people’s photography blogs I have really wanted to go out and find owls, but so far no luck.  I have never photographed owls before and from other pictures I have seen they make very interesting photographs, and many people do not see owls on a regular basis.  I am hoping I can find some owls up here at school, because I have heard that some classes do go out and attempt to see owls.  I guess knowing that I can keep my spirits up until I can go back home and photograph Eagles.     

Full mature bald eagle fishing on rocks along a stream.

Abundance of Wildlife

Yesterday was full of excitement, from the time I got to the lake to the time I left.  When I first arrived I spotted a couple of eagles.  Plus there were many types of waterfowl including common mergansers, American black ducks, and Red-breasted mergansers.  The lake was also teeming with seagulls.  After about a half an hour more eagles started to show up.  I could not even count how many I saw during the day.  They were very active fishing, but I did not capture a good shot of any while fishing.  I did get a good shot of an eagle while it was taking off.  Out of all the photographs I took it seemed like the only good one.  I not only got to see eagles chasing ducks and one eagle attack a seagull that had caught a fish, but I also saw eagles locking claws and fighting each other.  It was absolutely incredible.  I hope when the snow stops, that I can get another chance at the lake this afternoon. 

Eagle Season is Finally Here

I think this may be my best Eagle Photograph to date.

Eagle Season finally seems to be here.  I am starting to see more eagles than I was in the past month.  So it appears that the eagles have finally gotten here.  It has been an odd year because of the mild temperatures, so the season is starting later than normal.  But I am happy that they are finally here.

He got a little to close and I cut off his other wing, but I was still happy with the shot.

Yesterday was an amazing day.  All the wildlife were very active, including the black ducks, seagulls, and bald eagles.  The day started out with about a dozen bald eagles sitting in the trees.  Then one eagle would dive bomb the water and all the other eagles would then follow, trying to steal his catch.  Then they would land back up in the trees and repeat the process.  So most of my photographs were of flying eagles.  The hard thing for me is I use a manual focus lens at 650mm for most of my flying shots.  So it is much harder to get good shots.  I also took some pictures of seagulls and ducks fishing but none of the shots were that impressive. 

I also noticed that yesterday there were a lot more bald eagles than there has been in the past few weeks.  Plus it was not a normal day because the eagles remained active for most of the day, including the middle hours, which does not normally happen.  So I guess I was lucky.  Another hard part about getting good photographs is dueling it out with other photographers that are there.  Because there are only a few places to park where you can get good shots.  I hope to go back out tomorrow and Saturday, so check back in a few days for the next post.  Don’t forget to leave comments, and I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.      

Bald Eagle Heaven

I spent about three hours yesterday afternoon out at the local reservoir and it was like Eagle Heaven.  I saw at least ten eagles.  Plus they were very active.  Most of which were fishing and landing on the ice.  I didn’t get any good flying photographs or any good shots on the ice, but I did get some nice shots of them in the trees.

  I was not alone though, there were several other photographers there with very nice equipment and they were making it challenging to get good shots.  Since I have been going to the lake for years I felt like I had the advantage of knowing the eagle’s habits.  I guess a little knowledge of where they like to land and a little luck got me a couple of good shots.  I decided to stop fighting over position with the other people and went further down the lake, where the lake thins out to a stream.  That’s when I saw an eagle sitting in the tree really close.  Most of my photos were taken at 600mm but a couple were taken at 1300mm, because I did not need to get any closer.

Plus the lighting yesterday was very good.  The light was not to bright and not to dark for me to use my larger lens.  Please take a look at my photographs and leave comments and questions.  I will try and answer any questions that you leave. 

Disappointing Week

So far this week has been very disappointing.  I have taken trips out to the river and the reservoirs every day but so far there has not been very much action.  I have only seen a couple of bald eagles, and a few ducks and other small bird species.  Hopefully in the next few days the action will start to pick up and I will get a few good shots.  It has been such a mild winter this year that it seems to be cutting down on not only the bald eagle activity but it also seems to be affecting other bird species.  I wish it would start to get colder and stay cold for a while that way some of the bird species will finally come far enough south due to the ice.  I will be really happy when the activity in this area starts to pick up because normally by now the eagles are already here.  But from the eagles I have been seeing on my trips, I can tell that most of them I see all year long so the eagles from the north have not migrated down yet for the winter.  The only good thing about this week is that I bought a new Manfrotto Tripod and ballhead combo, and it is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate since tonight we are supposed to have a small ice storm.  I will be really happy if this tripod works well for me.  My last tripod was just a cheap one and this will be my first good tripod.  I hope it will help me improve my photographs.  Also I made a YouTube video that showcases some of my photographs.  I will link the video on my blog.   http://youtu.be/HF4evlMYzVQ

Great Day

Today was a really good day.  About a week ago I was wishing for bright sunlight but today I finally got it.  The only problem was that the light was so bright it was washing out the whites in the Bald Eagles heads.  I wish there was a little bit of clouds today so the light would have been filtered but it was not.  I was so happy to see many Eagles, and was delighted that there was a good amount of action but I was disappointing when I saw the images when I got back home.  Today wildlife was plentiful.  I saw many American Black Ducks, seven Bald Eagles, four of which were full mature.  Also I saw some sparrows, and I just missed my chance to get a photograph of a kingfisher on a stump.  I was so close but it flew away.  Overall the day was very good, but it could have been a little better.  I just need to work on my skills and capture even better images.  Don't forget you can click on the images to enlarge them.