Eagles in action

It’s winter here in West Michigan, and it’s been a blah type of winter so far. It’s been cold and cloudy most of the time, but we haven’t had very much snow so far this year. It’s been cold enough that many of the smaller bodies of water have frozen over, so most of the waterfowl have flown south for the winter. It’s been getting tougher to find subjects to photograph with every passing week, mostly due to the weather.

One constant for over a month has been the large number of bald eagles hanging out in the vicinity of the Muskegon County wastewater facility and the adjacent county landfill. At one point, I counted 13 bald eagles in view at one time, although they were scattered across the frozen surface of the storage lagoon at the wastewater facility. Bald eagles aren’t fussy about what they eat or where they find their food, they’ll scavenge the landfill just as the gulls and crows do. They also are able to pick off an occasional gull or one of the few remaining waterfowl, along with small mammals and other sources of food.

The photos in this post will all be of eagles that I’ve shot the past two months, and many of them aren’t very good, but they do show eagle behavior that many people never get the chance to see. I’m going to start with one of the better images that I’ve shot lately.

Juvenile bald eagle in flight

Of course it was a juvenile eagle, although this image of an adult is pretty good also.

Adult bald eagle in flight

And, it’s been relatively easy to get two eagles in the frame at once, as in this adult gliding past a juvenile perched on the ice.

Adult bald eagle flying past a perched juvenile

When the eagles first showed up, I was shooting them no matter how far away from me they were, and no matter how poor the weather was at the time. I’m going to include this series because it shows a juvenile eagle challenging an adult, even though they were too far away from me, and there was a huge flock of Canada geese between myself and the eagles. But, this shows both the eagles in action, and the large number of geese that remain around here.

Juvenile bald eagle challenging an adult

 

Juvenile bald eagle challenging an adult

 

Juvenile bald eagle challenging an adult

 

Juvenile bald eagle challenging an adult

 

Juvenile bald eagle challenging an adult

I should have known that a week or two later I’d be able to shoot two other eagles going at it a little closer to me.

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

 

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

I can’t say for sure that it was intentional, but it looked as if the eagle that had been perched filled its talons with ice and snow…

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

…and dropped it on the other eagle’s tail.

Two juvenile bald eagles establishing their pecking order in the flock

These “battles” seem to be all posturing, with no actual physical contact between the two combatants.

By the way, if it matters, all of these were shot with the Canon 7D Mk II and the 400 mm f/5.6 prime lens because of the 7D’s higher frame rate so that I could capture the action takin place.

Now then, on the other end of the behavior scale, I caught the two resident eagles doing a little early season courting. I can tell that they are the resident pair, because the male’s head looks flat and small compared to most eagles, I’ve seen them often enough to recognize the male. And, I can tell that they were courting by their behavior. That includes “billing”, that is they touch their bills together, and them calling to one another as you’ll see here.

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

 

Adult bald eagles courting

I was hoping that when first one of them flew off…

Adult bald eagles

…followed closely by the second one…

Adult bald eagle in flight

…that I’d be able to witness and photograph them mating which is done while they are airborne with their talons locked together in a downward spiral, but that wasn’t to be the case. By the way, eagles mate for life, so this pair was renewing their vows for the upcoming year.

Again if it matters, that last series was shot with the 5D Mk IV, the 100-400 mm lens, and 1.4 X tele-converter because of how dreary it was that day, and because the eagle’s courting action was much slower than when they are fighting or flying. I also used that same set-up for these.

Juvenile bald eagle touchdown

 

Juvenile bald eagle touchdown

I switched to the 2X tele-converter for added reach for these two, which shows an adult bald eagle with its kill, an unlucky fox squirrel that wasn’t paying enough attention to the dangers lurking above it.

Adult bald eagle with a fox squirrel it had caught

 

Adult bald eagle with a fox squirrel it had caught

In deciding which photos to include, along with how many of each action sequence, I also asked myself if I should wait until I shoot better ones in better light and when the eagles are closer to me. I’m reasonably certain that I’ll get better images in the future, but I also have to remember that many people who look at my blog have never seen a bald eagle in person, let alone the behaviors that I managed to capture, even if the photos are poor.

I suppose that it’s one of the good things about blogging, if or when I do get better images of the same types of behavior, I can simply do another post using them. I only hope that I don’t bore the readers of my blog too much as I practice for the big day when I get the chance to shoot the images that I’d really like to post.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

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