Eagle-Eyed Adventure

I’ve dazzled you all in the past with my dramatic wildlife shots:

Berkley with his arch-nemeses, the grazing cows.

 

So when my dear brother-in-law, Mike, invited us to come with him on a bald eagle photo shoot on the James River, I felt pretty sure my trusty Samsung phone-camera would give me some great shots of our day.

The shores of the James

It was one of those glorious October days where everything comes together so perfectly that even though we were sad from Berkley’s passing, our spirits were lifted.

The most beautiful sycamore we’ve ever seen.

 

Michael is an interesting guy. Like his three younger brothers, he is self-employed. He is an equine massage therapist/trainer and an outstanding saddle fitter. But his true love is photography, in particular shots of birds.

There has been a dramatic resurgence of resident bald eagles along the James River in Virginia. Get this: in 1975, the bald eagle had disappeared completely from the shores of the James. Today, through remarkable conservation efforts, we have 233 nesting pairs of bald eagles.

The resident bald eagles are monogamous creatures living their entire lives in one territory which they defend mightily against any and all intruders.

It wasn’t long before we began to see them perched as high they could go on the immense trees.  Eagles have such a regal quality; they’ll come down if and when they’re ready and a not a moment before. When one did soar down to the river, the photographers began snapping away madly as I fumbled with my phone and reading glasses:

Are you not impressed? Here’s another of my spectacular shots:

 

I mean, really, between you and me, you have to wonder whether Mike is wasting his money buying all these fancy lenses and accessories:

 

But then it all becomes clear. Sometimes you get what you pay for:

 

 

Typical photographer that he is, Mike’s comment on this shot is that he clipped the wing. My comment is that this is wonderful:

 

Let’s just say I have a new-found admiration for what it takes to get a decent shot of anything non-bovine or canine. Kudos to you photographers out there!

I did get one other rather cool eagle shot from the captain’s stash of educational props. No wonder we’ve seen a resurgence in population. Yikes.

And how often does it happen that an out-of-towner (Mike lives in South Carolina) introduces you to something terrific right in your own backyard? We’ll be back on the James again very soon, I’m sure.

Thanks for reading,

Barbara