{"id":2771,"date":"2014-02-16T15:53:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T21:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2014-02-17T09:09:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T15:09:27","slug":"eagles-eagle-watchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/16\/eagles-eagle-watchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles & Eagle Watchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to a good friend and good photographer, Stephen Sinclair, on a successful showing of over\u00a0100 of his wildlife prints at the\u00a0Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco\u00a0on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0Steve was overwhelmed at the number of friends,\u00a0photographers and nature lovers who\u00a0came to view his work.<\/p>\n

I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday\u00a0photographing bald eagles in the Texas hill country\u00a0where two\u00a0young birds were about\u00a0to fledge.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0\u00a0eaglets\u00a0 were flapping\u00a0about\u00a0the nest well before sunrise on Friday and Saturday, as several of us set up positions along\u00a0a highway about 100 yards away.\u00a0 Anticipating the best activity would be around sunrise and sunset, we waited patiently for chances to\u00a0catch the\u00a0adults bringing in\u00a0food and nest material and tending the young.<\/p>\n

Although the action was\u00a0slow, but the weather was great.\u00a0 We were treated to a magnificent sunset on Friday and that allowed us to\u00a0make\u00a0some fine images\u00a0of the nest and birds with a colorful background.<\/p>\n

Here is a sample of what we got:<\/p>\n

Don’t forget to click on the right side of the images to make them larger and sharper for viewing.\u00a0 The you can advance through the photos by clicking the arrows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Bald<\/a>
Bald Eagle landing at nest at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The image above was captured with a Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105 mm lens with tripod, ball head and electronic release.\u00a0 1\/125 second, f4.5, ISO 400 @ 105 mm.<\/p>\n

\"Adult<\/a>
Adult eagle arriving just after sunrise with part of a fish.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This capture was done with a Canon 7D camera, 500 mm IS Canon lens, Wimberley head, Feisol carbon fiber tripod.\u00a0 The 7D gave me\u00a01.6X magnification effect without having to add a teleconverter\u00a0 for the long shot. 1\/5000 second @ f5.6, ISO 640….1\/2000 second\u00a0@ f11 would have been better.\u00a0 I was exposing for the white head.<\/p>\n

\"Adult<\/a>
Adult bald eagle with nest material.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I used the Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm IS lens, and 1.4 X teleconverter to make this images at ISO 500, 1\/1600 second, f8.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>
During the mid-day hours, the adults perched and preened at various locations in view of the nest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The image above was made with the Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm lens and 2X teleconverter and cropped slightly to maintain about 8-12 megapixels.<\/p>\n

Tourists began arriving around 9:00 AM, hoping to get a look at our national symbol.\u00a0 The image below was done with the Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, hand-held.<\/p>\n

\""Happiness<\/a>
“Happiness is watching bald eagles in my rear view mirror.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The adult birds added sticks, grass, weeds and soil to the nest during occasional late morning visits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Adult<\/a>
Adult bald eagle making one last nest check as evening approaches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This adult hopped into the nest to check the young one last time\u00a0before flying away to\u00a0roost.<\/p>\n

\"Adult<\/a>
Adult landing at nest as night approaches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Eaglet<\/a>
Eaglet exercising while excited photographers capture the last images of the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photographing eagles\u00a0just before fledging time\u00a0requires a lot of patience, but it is so-o-o rewarding for the photographer\u00a0who\u00a0persists until\u00a0the light is gone.<\/p>\n

Hope you enjoyed the eagles.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to a good friend and good photographer, Stephen Sinclair, on a successful showing of over\u00a0100 of his wildlife prints at the\u00a0Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco\u00a0on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0Steve was overwhelmed at the number of friends,\u00a0photographers and nature lovers who\u00a0came to view his work. I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday\u00a0photographing bald eagles in the Texas … Continue reading Eagles & Eagle Watchers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2787,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}