Marsh Eagle Continued…

So to continue on from yesterday…after the eagle took off from out of the marsh with it’s muddy, mangled fish, we were shocked to see it land on a wood guard rail  at the side of a causeway that runs by part of the marsh. The eagle just stood there for well over a minute looking around in all directions. Possibly it was waiting for it’s friend to arrive that we saw flying around at the same time. But still, why would it decide to sit and wait there, in a low spot near a road?

Next you will see photos of your intrepid photographer (me) working the situation. The first shot was taken from far back by our friend Glenn who had his lens trained on the eagle as well. The next three shots were taken by my ever present sidekick and wife Alyce. The three of us were the only ones in the area until a car came around the corner at the end of the causeway. It turned out to be our friend Brenda who was holding back from driving on because she saw what we were doing and did not want to spook the eagle into leaving before it was ready to leave on it’s own. Interesting and exciting afternoon at the marsh yesterday!

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 01

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 02

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 03

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 04

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 05

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 06

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 07

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 08

Bald Eagle Leaves The Marsh 09

81 thoughts on “Marsh Eagle Continued…”

    • It was an experience! No, the eagles (and most other birds) generally stay away from humans which is smart.
      That’s why we were very surpised this one landed so close and stayed there for a bit.

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  3. What a treat. Superb shots as ever Phil. They really are such amazing birds. It was nice to get some scale from these pictures. We have a few buzzards around where I live here. They can often be seem perching on the telegraph poles. I’m currently saving for a 300mm lens and looking forward to trying to photograph them along with the other birds in my garden. Your photographs are such an inspiration.

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  5. Oh man that is incredible, why can’t I ever be there when these things happen, boy talk about being in the right
    place at the right time. Great Job Phil and Alice

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    • Yes it was a very nice topper for the day especially since we had mostly written off the day for giving us anything worthwhille.
      Brenda was super cool about staying back. She noticed what was going on quick and held back. 🙂

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  16. OK so you get this amazing experience and you don’t have the foresight to position another photographer on the other side so we can see your camera and the eagle!?!! Just fantastic all around – well worth the buildup.

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    • Well what can I say? You get what you pay for I guess. I tried to go with a three camera shoot on the cheap and still didn’t get all the angles covered properly. Gonna need to hire a crew next I suppose.
      Thanks for looking and commenting!

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    • It was close and it was exciting! I can only speculate that the eagle had a battle back in the reeds with a GBH over who owns this fish. Naturally the eagle won but, the fish likely got beat up in the process.
      I couldn’t believe he sat there for over a minute posing!

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  23. Hi Phil,
    This is “The Mick” from dpreview. I’ve been a fan of your work for quite some time now and have been checking in to read your blog periodically. I missed a few days then came back to this! Wow!!! That must have been an awesome site to behold for you three! I can only imagine the excitement of being so close to a magnificent creature like that in the wild. I look forward to seeing your next entry in ‘My Best Photo This Week’… so many choices. ;o) Excellent job and as always, Phil, thanks for sharing!
    Mick from Kings Mountain, NC

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    • Hey great to see you here Mick, and thanks very much for your kind words! I have also noticed your many compliments on my dpreview pics and appreciate your interest there as well!
      Thanks much for visiting my blog!
      Cheers
      Phil

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  26. Good series. You really managed to get quite close to the wild eagle. How lucky for you!

    As for the photos of you—-you have some excellent friends. They didn’t get any “butt” shots of you!!
    Now send that eagle on down here to south Florida.

    Larry

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    • Thanks!
      Yes I have on my standard wildlife photogrpaher uniform…jeans, T shirt, sweat shirt. 😀
      I don’t change up much because I want to make sure all my alligator pals recognize me every time. 😉

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    • Well as you can tell from the pics I got surprisingly close! A lot closer then I should have been able to get.
      We still have no idea why the bird landed and sat there for over a minute. Very cool to see though.

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    • We could not believe it ourselves Scott. It’s not typical behavior at all, their strength is in their flight ability. Standing around posing (for over a minute) for the photographer is not something I’m going to see every day but I’ll sure take it on this day.
      I was adjusting shutter speeds, lens openings and ISO on the fly as the action was taking place.
      Light was BAD so I couldn’t really go over 800 on the shutter and I didn’t want to go over 800 on the ISO so I really ended up underexposing which is fine, if that’s what it takes.

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      • Lucky but you were there and made the most and that is the difference, thanks for the technical info I am building my own knowledge base all the time, the blogging inspires me and gives me ideas – especially composition. I have enrolled in a 2 year Higher Professionally Diploma in Photo Imaging (which hopefully develop my commercial nous) Then on to a 2nd career 30 years in the military is enough for anyone.

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