Bald Eagle Serendipity

Earlier this week Mia and I spent two days on the road, driving over 500 miles looking for Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles. Though we did find some birds we were largely frustrated by bad timing, poor light and fog.

When we pulled into my driveway on returning at the end of the second day this Bald Eagle was in the huge elm tree in my side yard. Over almost 25 years I had never seen an eagle in my suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood! We spent over an hour photographing this very calm and accepting bird before it left once, returned and then flew off again, apparently for good. True, it was buried in branches and we couldn't get clean shots but still - an experience neither of us will soon forget. We seldom see banded eagles so found that interesting too.

There's more on my latest blog post if you're interested (see link below).

Great shot Ron! Don't you just love some of the postions and exspressions these birds can display. I live in Haines, Alaska and we are the home of the largest congregation of Bald Eagle in the world. I never get itred of photographing this amazing bird. As a matter of fact we are heading out the door in about 45 minutes to get some today and hope to get some high quality video also. Putting stuff together for the American Bald Eagle Foundation. Sure would like to correspond with you about techniques. I am at field2fame@gmail.com or www.field2frame.com. Keep up the good work.

Great shot! Would like to see more. Thanks for sharing.

This got a lot of ooohhhhhs and aaahhhhhhs from my crew this morning, Ron,
Our Bald's have just shown up in the Hoytsville area this week.
Nice shot!
Neil

Love it Ron. I'm still waiting to get my first eagle.
Thanks for sharing...

Don

Quite the yard bird!

cool, Ron! guess you should have stayed at home. quite a pose, too.

Of course, if you'd have hung out at home, the bird wouldn't have appeared. Great pose and capture.

I took seven trips to Alaska without getting a BE picture worth mentioning. Today, I had an identical experience, not two miles from my house. Nowhere near as good as yours, but it made my old heart go pitty-pat!

Great pose in mid bilateral stretch. I'd suspect that he or she finished by regaining a vertical stance and loudly "rousing" - ruffling and shaking essentially every feather possible to be roused all at one time - sometimes so actively one fears they will lose grip of the perch - and then letting them all fall back into their normal, sleek, aerodynamic arrangement. It usually occurs upon "rousing" from sleep at roost, and also at any time of day after a prolonged motionless period.
Did any of your other exposures reveal any of the numbers or other inscriptions on the band on the right leg?
Dave Graham, East River, SD

David - from this pose the eagle went to a unilateral stretch of the right wing. It never did stretch the left wing or rouse that I saw.

The only time we ever saw the band was with this pose. Here's a closer look at it from the best angle I got. To my old eyes the inscription is barely discernable and may include the letters GGTS???

This looks like a fairly old US Fish and Wildl. Serv. band. It looks to me like "0679-0..." and then can not see any more. The first 4 numbers should be enough to get you the year this bird was banded as well as the location possibly. Cool shot for sure. Unbelievable you travel all that way and then come home to one in your yard. Never seems to fail.

Thanks Ron. I think you're probably right about the numbers...

So cool!!! This pose reminds me of a tiger getting ready to pounce. I can almost see him wiggling his butt!