Mike Powell

Quite often I will spot a perched Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) perched in the distance when I am on certain trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The trail runs parallel to the waters of the bay and eagles like to perch in the high trees overlooking the water. My challenge is to get close enough to the eagle to get a decent shot without spooking the eagle.

Normally I will creep forward slowly, stopping periodically to get a shot. As I am moving forward, I am very conscious of the fact that the eagle may take off at any moment, but it is not easy to predict the direction of the takeoff. Sometimes eagles will fly upwards when they take off and other times they will drop from the branches like a rock. I feel a bit like a goalie in soccer match when an opposing player is taking a penalty shot as I look for clues that will allow me to predict the eagle’s timing and direction of its takeoff.

Last Thursday, I spotted an eagle perched at the top of a tree. As I approached the eagle, it grew larger in my camera’s viewfinder, though it still filled only a relatively small part of it. Suddenly the eagle took off. As it flapped its mighty wings, the eagle increased in size and rose into the air. As you can see, I clipped one of its wings when I captured the first image below. I had only a split second to react and I did ok, but there was definitely room for improvement.

Later in the day, I spotted another bald eagle high in a tree overhanging the trail. I had quite a bit of trouble getting a shot of it, because the sun was directly in my eyes. I tried to walk underneath the eagle to get the sun to my back, but the eagle spotted me and I snapped off the second shot below as it was taking off. Technically speaking it is not a very good shot, but I really like the way that I captured the underside of the eagle that was almost directly overhead and the light shining through the tail feathers is pretty cool.

When it comes to reaction time and eyesight, a bald eagle clearly has me beat, but that does not discourage me. Some of the time, the eagles are distracted or inattentive and I manage to capture action shots of them. I am blessed to live in an area with a good number of eagles and I never tire of photographing them.  Hopefully you enjoy seeing photos like these ones, especially if you don’t see eagles very often.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.