Snow Squalls and a Wasted Chance at Some Bald Eagles
I awoke this morning to some pretty chilly weather and a little bit of snow. Wind was fierce last night, blowing in Spring snow squalls.
I drove down to the river below the dam once it stopped snowing, and got some shots of the common mergansers, cinnamon teal, and the mallard pair.
As always, just click on any image for a larger, sharper version.
On the way back to the dam, I spotted 2 bald eagles harassing what I figured was a vulture in the top of a dead tree next to the road at eye level with the road.
Unfortunately I still had my 1.4 TC on and had too much lens, so I lost time getting that off, then the camera had trouble focusing on the eagle in flight with a solid background of trees on the far slope of the river below, plus it had begun snowing again. The pair of eagles swooped in a circle around the tree twice while I tried to get a decent shot, but then a truck pulled off the road and headed down the dirt road directly under the tree the eagles were circling and drove them off. I never did get a shot in focus. What a great opportunity wasted!
The truck quickly turned around and came back on the highway and went on his way. I then noticed that what I assumed was a vulture in the treetop was actually a subadult bald eagle, so I made my way down the dirt road to try and get a shot before it took off. Alas, the only clear shot angle was directly into the glare of the sun behind the snow squall blowing through, so, once again, no decent photo.
Back at the campsite, my feeder that was full of jays yesterday now was full of yellow headed blackbirds.
As the sun popped in and out of the swift moving clouds, I couldn’t resist adding just a few more shots of the blackbirds grabbing midges, if you couldn’t tell, I really enjoyed catching this action.
