29 Eagles

A pair of eagles winters near my home. Their huge nest in an old pecan tree is just far enough away from Highway 29 to make photographing them a VERY long lens proposition. I went out this morning with my 300 mm and a 1.4 teleconverter. My Nikon D80 crop factor of 1.5 makes that combination the equivalent of a 630mm lens. I still have to crop heavily to get eyeballs. Any underexposure results in grain the size of the eyeballs.
I've been there several times but have yet to get a decent picture. It finally struck me that I was going at the wrong time of the day. I was trying to get pictures with a setting sun. The setting sun is behind them; I need to be there at sunrise. Jane has trained me to sleep. It's been a long time since I saw a sunrise. :)
I was up at five, trying not to wake Jane. She was so tired after all the hours she's putting in that she hardly moved. I made some coffee and gathered my equipment into the truck. It's about twenty minutes to the site. I got there about fifteen minutes before sunrise. I could just make out a dark lump next to the nest. The lump flew away before there was enough light for a picture. I made myself comfortable in the truck, sipped my coffee and listened to public radio. About thirty minutes after its takeoff, the first bird flew across the nest but kept going. There was a lot of noise as the two eagles called back and forth.
After a bit more than an hour, I saw a white head peak over the edge of the nest. The mate was getting restless ... and probably hungry. I could just imagine what it was saying, "Hey baldy (play on words), get your feathered fanny back here. I'm hungry too and this egg is getting very uncomfortable."
I kept one eye on the mate and the other scanned the sky for the first eagle's return. It was nearly two hours before eagle number one returned. After all that waiting, I shot all the following photographs in less than five minutes. The eagle on the right (I won't try to specify male or female) is the one returning. The mate is turning over the egg incubation responsibilities. The mate then flew toward me, perched in a dead tree, and posed for my pictures. :)
The following shot was just as the eagle settled on the dead limb. I love my quick focusing Nikon 300mm AF-S. It tracked the eagle from the nest to this tree and never lost focus.
This was a very cooperative eagle. It perched in the trees, surveying the surroundings and ensuring that I had ample opportunity get a sampling of mug shots and profiles. They are beautiful birds but quite intimidating, I'm certain, to any animal unfortunate enough to be prey. Look at the eyes. They are so fierce. They look intelligent, don't you think?
As always, click on the image to enlarge.
All this was a thrill but the morning was cloudy and overcast. I had to crop drastically to enlarge the eagles. I'll need to return during brighter light to avoid the noise from dull lighting. More to come. :-)

l8r