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Terry and I have a standing joke: the birds arrive after he leaves.
Monday (1/13) Terry, Daren, and I made an owl hunt at Yost Park. After coming up empty, we went down to the fishing pier where we saw a few birds, but nothing spectacular. Terry had to leave. Daren and I drove to Marina Park, where we ran into a fellow local bird photographer and forum member, Janine. Janine pointed out one of the Pt. Edwards eagles perched on its usual tree above the off leash dog beach and said we had just missed one perched on the piling. As we were talking, Janine noticed an eagle perched on the marina breakwater to our north.
As I was snapping photos, a second eagle approached from the north. The first eagle took off with a bird it had captured with the second eagle close behind in hot pursuit.
Janine and I were so "focused" on the two flying eagles that we did not turn around to see if the eagle on the tree was still there. That bit of knowledge would have been helpful in determining whether we were watching two or three full adults.
The first eagle tried landing on the piling, then took off south.
The second eagle landed on the piling.....
and screeched.
The first eagle banked and flew back towards the piling.
While the first eagle was standing on the piling and screeching,
the second eagle landed up in the tree above the dog beach.
The first eagle was having trouble standing on the piling and holding the bird, which I believe was a common murre. Looking at these photos, the murre may have still been alive and struggling to escape.
The eagle delivered some death bites to settle the issue once and for all.
Things got very interesting when a third(?) eagle, a sub-adult (note the smattering of grey still on its head and white under its wings), flew south past Pt. Edwards.
One of the Pt. Edwards eagles did not take kindly to an intruder in its territory.
The evening's eagle action concluded near sunset with one of the Pt. Edwards adults flying south around Pt. Edwards past the condos.
Janine has shown me some of her photos and they are quite good. She recently joined this forum and I keep bugging her to post up her photos. She said that she has had some technical difficulties doing so and will contact BobH.
Wow, Bill. Good thing I wasn't there! Amazing sequences and very well done - getting all those shots in sharp focus requires a high level of skill....you are the man!
And a high level of luck. Shooting rapid fire, there were a lot which were out of focus that got deleted. I ended up saving 84 photos from the sequences.
With four resident adult pairs residing in the area, the chances of seeing an eagle from mid October - mid August are very good.
Lake Ballinger (Mountlake Terrace)
Pt. Edwards (Edmonds/Woodway)
Hutt Park (Edmonds)
Pt. Wells (Richmond Beach)
Additionally, there are several juvies and sub adults in the area as well. The Pt. Edwards pair is the most prominent pair in Edmonds as they frequently fly over the waterfront on regular patrol between their lookout tree on the bluff south of the dog park at Marina Beach and the pilings off the Senior Center between the marina and ferry dock.
I have received a few e-mails asking techno info about the shots. I was shooting hand-held using my Canon 5D Mk III + 4.0-5.6/100-400L telephoto zoom lens + 1.4x teleconverter. This combo produces a 560mm telephoto lens when the zoom is fully extended.
Settings were Tv mode (photographer/manual controled shutter speed, camera/auto controled aperature opening), auto ISO, auto white balance, evaluative metering, and 0 exposure compensation.
Because I was using the teleconverter, the largest aperature opening available to the telephoto zoom which still allows the autofocus to function is f/8.0, thanks to the 5D Mk III's 2013 firmware upgrade. Due to the low light, I was shooting at 1/500 and 1/1000 to keep the ISO settings reasonable. Eagles like to soar with minimal wing beats, so you can shoot at relatively slow speeds when they are in flight.
She hasn't been online since mid December, so sending her a PM probably won't help. I checked the account and it looks fine. I need to know what error message she's getting, and where she's trying to post.
My first guess is the usual problem in this case, she's trying to upload something too big. Tell her to try with something like 600 x 800 and maybe 100K. That's far smaller than it has to be, but it makes troubleshooting quick and easy that way.
Amazing sequences and very well done - getting all those shots in sharp focus requires a high level of skill....you are the man!
