Bay Photos by Donna

My past week was filled with some wonderful photo ops of a variety of birds, but time at the computer has eluded me and I am still going thru the last of my downloads.  Still I wanted to get some up to share before I bust from the excitement!  🙂

Eagles…..

I haven’t seen an eagle in the last three days, but last Wednesday through Saturday I got to watch and photograph eagles soaring off to the left of my balcony over Marshy Creek and CBEC both mornings and evenings.  With the sun rising or setting, what a way to start and end my days!  At one time, there were five in the sky (three adult, two immature), which confused me.  I’ve seen four at the most, being two adult eagles with their two juveniles, so I’m not sure where the fifth one came from.  No one was aggressive with another, so I really couldn’t tell who was the ‘extra’.  The most I could get in one shot were three….

Bald Eagles over Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center

Bald Eagles over Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center

A little later only two of the eagles remained and they became playful, circling and bumping each other, doing some beautiful bonding together.  I’ll be the first to say the quality of the next images I captured aren’t the greatest; but if you’ve not seen eagles “cartwheeling”,  it gives you a sense of the downfall spinning they do after locking talons together, then disconnecting just before hitting the ground or treetops.  A scarey but pretty cool feat!

Bald Eagles "cartwheeling" over Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center

Bald Eagles 'cartwheeling"

Bald Eagles "cartwheeling"

Bald Eagles "cartwheeling"

Bald Eagles "cartwheeling"

Friday and Saturday I got other distant shots, but Thursday was my jackpot day of eagle ops!  It started Thursday morning before leaving for work, I had kept an eye on a female mallard who was below me, lounging in the grass alongside a flowerbed.  The sunrise’s golden rays were highlighting her coloring so I decided to take a couple photos.  As I stepped out on to my balcony, she flew up and off to my right in a fluster, quacking hysterically!  I turned to my left and saw an eagle coming right at me.  Camera in hand, I quickly aimed up, and here’s the shots I got (last one is not good but you can see him glancing down at me)….

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle "giving me the eye"

Whoosh, he went right over me, I felt his breeze through my hair!  Well, maybe a little exaggeration on the breeze/hair part LOL but if I didn’t have a roof over my head, I would have felt it!  😉

I wanted so bad to quickly download to see them but wanted to also cruise my ‘OC loop’ (update photos soon), so I opted to leave, loop, and then on to work.  Heading home, I had eagles on my brain again, I needed to see those shots!  As always after walking in, I first head for my ‘5-10 minute moment’ on the balcony to unwind from the day, and see what activity might be going on.  Stepping out, an eagle was soaring between CBEC and me, off to my right.  No way!  (I’m pretty sure I said that out loud!)  As he soared back and forth, I continued to shoot him.  Here’s several that have him coming towards me at different times, it was difficult to pick just these to share.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

After another circling, he comes at me again…..

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

And then again, this time closer yet!

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

And then just as quickly, he took off and was gone.  What perfect timing!

About an hour later just before sunset, an immature eagle flew by in the distance heading west.  I really liked the next two images because of the sky and cloud colors.

Immature Bald Eagle

Immature Bald Eagle

I felt like I had soared with the eagles that day.  Maybe you can get that sense with the little series’ shots I shared!

I hope you enjoyed and thank you always for stopping by.  🙂