One of the many images from my chance encounter with a pair of adult Bald Eagles this past Monday not 10 minutes from my house. What an amazing time and all the stress of work wilted away after this. He was absolutely gorgeous and the late afternoon sun lit him up beautifully. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Bald Eagle launches head on for Freedom Friday
I’ve been sitting on this image for a few weeks, anxiously awaiting posting it until after the holidays so more folks could see it. It simply must be one of my favorite eagle captures I have ever taken.
While observing a pair of Bald Eagles, one suddenly launched into the air, snapped the top of a small branch off the tree and then flew right at me.
The head on view, intense stare, and great look at the powerful talons make this a pretty darned cool shot if I do say so myself. 😉
I was able to capture the entire sequence from its initial grab of the branch to it snapping it off then coming at me and heading off with its nest building material. The action sequence came out quite nice and perhaps most exciting is the thought that it may have been taking the branch to work on a new nest in the area. Hopefully that is the case.
Taken in Thornton, Colorado. Scroll down to view the entire sequence.
Prairie Falcon takes a shot at intimidating a Bald Eagle
A fun little sequence from New Year’s Day taken northeast of Denver, Colorado. This eagle was hanging out keeping watch on a field and I was in turn watching it, hoping it would move closer as it was on private property.
Apparently a brave little Prairie Falcon felt the bigger raptor was intruding on its territory and made a few passes in an attempt to get the eagle to give ground. It did work and the eagle moved on with the falcon in hot pursuit – unfortunately in the wrong direction for pics though.
Not great quality images due to the distance and the fact I was shooting into the sun but still neat.
Ferruginous Hawk poses with the moon
Kind of a fun couple of images although I do wish the moon had come out sharper. By mid-morning this past Sunday when this image was taken there was a good bit of haze though.
Ferruginous Hawks are the largest buteos in North America and from a distance, their size and profile may have them mistaken for eagles. While they can be found here in Colorado year-round, they are most common during the winter months.
This one has chosen a utility pole for a perch, but you are more likely to find them on the ground standing over a rodent’s hole waiting for an unsuspecting victim to stick its head out.
Images of Bald Eagle battle get international press
Not my highest quality captures due to the long range but it was a LOT of fun to witness and very cool to have the sequence published. I don’t expect the prairie dog was as happy about it as I was though. 😉
King of the mountain
It is ‘hump day’ and being coupled with the first full workweek after the holidays it feels like we are climbing a mountain. So, in honor of that, I present a very able mountain climber – the Bighorn Sheep ram.
This handsome guy is striking a classic pose showcasing its powerful body and ability to navigate even the roughest terrain. I don’t know about you, but those are traits I wish I had. 😉
The Bighorn Sheep is found in many places in Colorado’s high country and it is the state’s official animal. Diseases from European livestock and overhunting had caused the animal’s population to drop precipitously by the early 1900s. Thankfully conservation efforts have been successful in helping it rebound since then.
Bald Eagle dines and dashes
Sometimes just paying attention – and a bit of luck – yields some pretty awesome photo opportunities. Driving home from work yesterday I took a bit of a different route hoping something interesting might come along.
It was looking bleak and I had given up when I glance to my right and see an eagle in a tree of a county open space. I park and start to walk toward it and what do I see but a second eagle on a pole dining on Prairie Dog.
In the end I captured dozens of great images of both of them – this is the one that was eating.
I would have posted sooner but wouldn’t you know it but no sooner did I download these images yesterday evening than I suffered a hard drive failure on my computer! Thank goodness for backups although I have spent the past day slowly working to get things up and running again.
Taken in Thornton, Colorado.
Bald Eagle keeps watch over its shoulder
As if to ensure I wasn’t taking flight and giving pursuit, this young eagle looked over its shoulder at me after it launched into the air.
You’ll notice the unusual appearance of its eye. Bald Eagles have an inner eyelid called a nictitating membrane and that is why it looks unusual. This membrane wipes front to back every few seconds, cleaning the cornea. It is translucent and the eagle can actually see through it.
We continue to see Bald Eagle activity pick up here in northeastern Colorado and it should continue to do so before peaking around the end of the month. While I don’t like the cold, it is my favorite time of year for taking pictures. 😉
Red Tailed Hawk casts a curious look
As the most common hawk in my area, Red Tails are something I could probably photograph every day with little effort despite their notorious skittishness. Normally though I drive right by them as I don’t usually find them particularly handsome or compelling subjects unless they are doing something interesting.
This young one though caught my eye yesterday and I had to stop to visit with it. It was perched over a rural road and while fluffed up against cold temperatures and with the deep, blue Colorado sky behind it, it looked very cute.
As interested as I was in it, it seemed almost more so interested in me. It stared at me, canting its head at odd angles as if to try to figure out what I was doing. All the while, it was completely calm and never appeared threatened by me. Taken in Adams County, Colorado.
Bald Eagle pair in Adams County, Colorado
I suspect this pair is the same that had a nest that was in a tree that collapsed back in June. This location is a couple miles away as the eagle flies. There is a very large nest right near where they were at today that in year’s past has been unoccupied. I am hoping they will be making it their home.