Sunday, February 22, 2009

Poconos Part 3 - Eagles

On Sunday we went on a little drive to the Delaware River. We saw parts of the old canal and the aqueduct that is now a road. We also were on the lookout for Bald Eagles. We were not disappointed.

This picture is from the aqueduct to the boat landing. We had been on the landing just a few minutes before looking at an eagle in a tree across the river through binoculars. We also saw a couple soaring through the sky. Then while at this location we saw an eagle flying so close to the people on the landing. He was looking for fish or bait hoping the fishermen dropped something. If you click on the picture and make it big, you might be able to find the eagle in this photo. We packed up and drove right back over to the landing.

Here is the eagle. Sitting on the top of the tree right next to us. My camera doesn't have a very big zoom. It's great for snapshots, not so great for close-ups of wildlife in trees.
Rob did a little Maverick like maneuvering and got the camera set up so that he could take a picture through the binoculars. Here is a first attempt where you can see the binocular ring. But look how close that eagle is! You can see the beak.
To get the shot Rob set the camera to macro. Because with the binocular magnification the eagle was at macro distance. He put the camera against the binocular eyepiece and then used the viewfinder to get the eagle centered.
He sat like this for the 30 minute we watched, and probably stayed for awhile. It was somewhat difficult to get his profile because he was looking away from us to the fishermen on the boat. He never got any dropped fish or bait while we were there. But we did hear his call.
Very cool day.

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