Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles

I returned to Big Beef Creek for 3 or 4 hours today. Unfortunately, yesterday and today harsh high noon light coincided with low tide. However, the weather is breathtakingly gorgeous, beautiful blue skies with a few puffy white clouds, temps in the 60’s with a gentle breeze, could not ask for a nicer day! Just not ideal for photographing dark birds with white heads.

As always, click on any image for a larger, sharper version.

A great blue heron exhibiting great fishing technique.

Then taking off.

Bald eagles choosing two different places to dine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bald eagles soaring above,

and another type of bird doing the same.

Trying not to blow out the white heads and tails of the eagles while still preserving some detail in their dark bodies is made very difficult, if not impossible, in this kind of mid-day brilliant light.

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Big Beef Creek for More Eagles

Once again I drove the 35 miles back up to Big Beef Creek in Seabeck from my campsite at Belfair State Park in Belfair. For those of you getting tired of bald eagle shots, I only have three days left doing this and then I am off farther west to Potlatch State park.

As always, click on any image for a larger, sharper version.

Started off this morning shooting the great blue herons as they arrived on scene to fish for sculpin. About two or three hours before low tide, they usually come flying in and concentrate near the bridge, fairly close to shore, and the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning they were having quite a bit of success with the sculpin.

As the tide retreats, the herons go with it out to the oyster beds  a few hundred feet from the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is usually the time the eagles arrive to start stealing and fishing, maybe an hour or hour and a half before low tide. They soar over the scene searching for herons with fish, then swoop down and scare the heron off it’s catch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the tide continues to recede the eagles often will land on the oyster beds and search for sculpin trapped among the oysters by the falling tide, easy pickings, even easier than stealing from the herons.

The eagles also do their own fishing, this one above was diving for a fish with a crow flying escort, most likely hoping to grab a morsel if the eagle was successful. He followed close on the eagle’s tail for a whole sequence of shots, though I didn’t see it rewarded with any scraps.

More soaring eagles.

Bald eagles reach maturity at four to five years, this is when they are seen with their distinctive white head and tail feathers. Until then, you see them in varying feather tones. I liked this ones outlined tail feathers.

A couple of closeups from today’s shoot.

As the tide goes out, I usually wander down to the beach and walk a little ways out from shore, trying to position myself directly under the flight path the eagles use to return to the tall trees along the shore where they perch to eat their catch. Often they come quite close as they come and go from their perches.

Quite neat when you actually hear their wing flap as they pass overhead.