January 29 – My Nature Journal

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Today, I saw my very first adult Bald Eagle in the wild, making it a truly momentous and memorable day.

I was out for a nature walk in the early evening and wasn’t seeing much. Then I caught sight of a large, dark shape high in the sky and far out over the lake. At first, I thought it was a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), which are extremely common in my area, but something didn’t look quite right.

Even though the bird was far out of ideal range of my telephoto lens, my lens brought its image close enough for me to see that the bird had a pale head and wings. It was an adult Bald Eagle!

The bird wheeled in a wide circle, then suddenly, began to stoop towards the water. It dropped its legs, extended its toes, and hit the water with a splash.

The eagle flapped its wings hard, smacking the outer primaries against the water’s surface.

After several heavy wing beats, the Bald Eagle cleared the water and gained some height. Dangling from its right foot was a large, wriggling, silver fish.

The successful eagle flapped its way towards the far end of the lake and the chase was on.

I tracked the eagle as it glided to the distant shore and landed in a tall tree just on my side of the point where the lake juts into a narrow inlet. I hefted my camera, kept my eyes locked on that bird, and hoofed it as fast as I could around the edge of the lake towards it.

Luckily, eating its dinner kept the Bald Eagle occupied long enough for me to make it all the way around the curve of the lake and close enough to get a few photos.

After all these years of photographing wildlife with the same lens, I have a pretty good idea of how close I need to be to an animal to get good shots. But I’m also aware that many animals don’t appreciate humans coming too close and I never want to stress an animal into changing its behavior or burning energy unnecessarily.

So, I err on the side of caution and photograph my animals from a farther distance than I might prefer so I don’t scare them off. After all, I’m not the most important creature to consider.

So, while these shots are certainly not great from a technical standpoint, they serve a more important purpose to me than bragging rights. They remind me of the very first time I saw an adult Bald Eagle in the wild, how my heart pounded with excitement, and the thrill I got when this magnificent bird looked straight at me with those incredible, penetrating eyes.