Bald eagle in a tangle of branches
Whitehorse is home to bald eagles among many other birds – large and otherwise. We found them on several occasions during our visit there last summer. This one landed in these twisted branches and I was able to play with her framed by them.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Bald eagle in Bragg
Found a bald eagle in a branch above a couple of ravens that were on the ground. There must have been something that they were fighting over with the eagle for breakfast. When the raptor launched it angled away from me but I had a good side shot for a second.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Bald eagle rising
Near Priddis, on my way to photograph at Frank Lake, I found a bald eagle perched in this interesting tree. I waited for a few minutes before the bird took flight. For me this image is a subtle allegory for choosing to fly above chaos – I like that!
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
A bald eagle in flight with its prey
A few weeks ago, there were several bald eagles hunting for prairie dogs in the fields west of the Springbank Airport. I’m not sure if these rodents were just coming out of their holes, the eagles were migrating through or something else was behind this congregation. No matter why, the eagles were making hunting runs on the far side of one field at one point in the afternoon. One of these saw one eagle fly back towards where I was standing. That provided a great opportunity for a few in flight shots.
This eagle flew past me and far beyond before landing so I did not take any photographs of the meal. If you are interested, I have posted here previously of another eagle from the same day that I found eating from a perch in a tree. I realize that may be unappealing – but some people are interested. Either way, here are a couple more of this eagle as it passed overhead.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Bald in eagle in a blue sky
A couple of days ago I spotted this bald eagle balanced atop a telephone pole. He was watching a small conspiracy of ravens gathered on a snow pile on the edge of a field in Springbank.
After a few minutes his curiosity seemed to get the best of him and we launched towards the group. He spiralled above them for a moment but must not have seen anything too appealing as he landed on another telephone pole instead of amongst the ravens.
Maybe it was just to have a closer look before deciding. Either way he decided not to stick around for long and flew a couple of hundred metres away and into a stand of trees isolated in middle of the field.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Eagles flying at the Mount Lorette Ponds
This year I have photographed a pair of Bald eagles who nested at the Mount Lorette Ponds. These small lakes in Kananaskis are stocked with Rainbow trout most years so these eagles have obviously found an excellent location to summer. On this morning in mid-August the day took a little while to warm up which saw both birds perch in the trees nearby. I waited for a couple of hours for a fish catching run with no luck.
The luck I did have was watching these two beautiful animals as they surveyed their land below. One eagle was more active early and flew to different trees a few times before disappearing into the forest above the water. I hiked around for a bit before returning and finding one over the water again while the other perched on the edge of that forest.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Eagle fishing in the Banff National Park
I watched this eagle glide across the Vermilion Lake from its nest on the far side. Ahead of his arrival on the shore in front of me, waterfowl and a couple of Great blue heron scattered in all directions. The eagle flew higher and circled a couple of times, staring into the water. He dove, his claws slicing the water, but finding no joy. The raptor pulled up into a branch of a dead tree to reconsider its approach.
Twenty minutes passed before his second flight. He flew in a wide arc, gaining a little more altitude. The birds that had been on the water, had not returned so the eagle had a clean line this time.
He dove, again, and this time his talons came off the surface with a fish in their grasp.
The fish was quickly moved from talons to beak and then swallowed mid-flight.
The eagle flew back up to the same tree and settled on a branch near where it had been pestered by the blackbird earlier. From there, I hoped he would fish again and I waited for more than an hour. Along the way, he called out a few times which gave some interesting head and beak positions to photograph.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Flying low over the Prairies
The Bald eagles in the Livingstone area have held my attention for more than a full day and I’m looking forward to getting back there soon. I am wanting to catch one of their attacks on the Richardson ground squirrels that blanket the fields. The last time I went out, this immature eagle flew in front of me and I thought it might find one. It didn’t happen then but the opportunity for in-flight photographs was wonderful.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
A Bald eagle’s Prairie flight
Watching birds in flight is a source of great pleasure for me. Perhaps it’s the freedom I imagine they enjoy (written just as two ravens glided by my window, acrobatically playing on the air currents outside) or the grace that many of them carry into the sky. When I have the gift of watching them close to the ground, it gives a different perspective and one that I particularly enjoy photographing.
So when two of the four bald eagles that watched for quite a while on the weekend glided off of their tree perch and landed out on the field nearby, I was excited. I had hoped they may dive on the prairie dogs as they passed by. They did not, it seemed that an alert had gone up as the little creatures were nowhere to be seen at that moment, and they alighted in the short grass. They chirped a little at each other but it seemed like they were just enjoying the sunshine as they stood in their respective spots for close to ten minutes. The adolescent launched first – I wanted to blur the wings in flight so I dragged my shutter. I’m still evaluating those results – we’ll see another day if I think they are worth sharing.
When the mature eagle lifted off the Prairie, I kept the shutter speed fast to freeze the motion and panned with the beautiful bird as it powerfully drove past.
When it buzzed a magpie that had also been sitting in the field, that bird flew up and in front of the eagle for a short ways. The eagle’s eyes were on this diminutive cousin of the raven and the crow but it was undeterred as it flew back towards its small convocation.
As it gained a little altitude, I liked the way the elements in the background looked in soft focus.
At one moment during this short flight it did look down at the field at one point – again raising my hopes of a dive – but nothing like that came of it.
Both eagles rejoined the other two that had remained in the tree. They all remained there for an hour before hunting over the fields individually later.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
Eagle ways
At one point when I was watching the group of Bald eagles I found east of the Crowsnest Pass last weekend, one of the adults landed in a tree close to where I was set up. Looking closely, I saw that he had a Prairie dog in one of its claws.
He finished the meal quickly and then set about cleaning its beak and talons. He used the stubs on the branch to rub against and as leverage during the cleaning. I was fascinated with the fastidiousness with which he carried out this work.
When that was done, he provided a few great poses for portrait shots while scanning the fields for more creatures and the skies for his fellow eagles.
After a few minutes, he flew off to a larger tree nearby where the other three eagles were perched.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
A Bald eagle’s branch dance
I found an aerie of four Bald eagles east of the Crowsnest Pass this weekend. They perched in still dormant trees that divide up several farm fields. From these perches, they can hunt for the ground squirrels that scurry between their holes among the short grass. This eagle had just finished his meal and I caught him adjusting his position on the branch. It looked a bit like a line dancing sidestep to me.
Sharing this post is welcomed - but please do not use individual images without permission from Christopher Martin in advance.
An eagle in the woods
There was a murder of crows circling a wooded spot east of Bragg Creek that caught my attention. I was driving into Calgary and pulled over to see what was going on. At that moment, this Bald eagle flew out of the trees and blasted through the middle of the group. They scattered and the eagle landed on a branch close by.
Whatever had drawn these opportunists in must have been deeper in the woods as I couldn’t see anything from where I was parked. While the eagle looked around I had time to switch lenses in favour of the longest one I have so I was able to get in quite close. The detail in the feathers was nice especially with the strong lighting – the relatively low angle of the sun in winter helped me here.
After a couple of minutes the eagle launched and banked into the forest. The crows had not yet returned so I imagined that he was hoping to finish his meal before being bothered again.
Christopher Martin Photography 