Mike Powell

I never get tired of photographing Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)—it always feels special to catch sight of one of these majestic birds. In Northern Virginia, where I live, we are blessed to have a relative abundance of Bald Eagles and I see one or more of them quite regularly. Getting a good shot of one, though, is a bit of a challenge, because the eagles’ eyesight and reaction times are vastly superior to my own. A lot of the time my first indication of the presence of an eagle is when I see it flying away from me.

This past Tuesday I spotted a Bald Eagle perched on a broken-of branch of what appeared to be a small, dead tree at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. There was some vegetation between the two of us that hopefully hid me from view. Initially my view of the eagle was partially blocked, but by bending and twisting myself, I managed to find a clear visual tunnel.

When I captured the first shot, the “regal” one, the eagle appeared to be surveying its surroundings from on high, like a royal sovereign. A few seconds late, the eagle seemed to have become aware of my presence and stared directly at me. It is hard to interpret the facial expressions of an eagle, but “fierce” is a descriptive word that often comes to mind.

Although it might have been a little curious about me, the eagle seemed mostly unhappy that I was there. I can imagine the regal eagle thinking, “We are not amused.”

Be sure to click on the second image to get a closer look at the eagle’s face. How do you interpret that expression?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Last Wednesday was a wonderful day for photographing Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I spotted them at several locations on the refuge and even managed to get a few portrait-style shots in which the eagles look particularly regal and majestic.

Earlier in the day the sun was shining brightly and I had the brilliant blue sky as a backdrop, as you see in the second photo below. However, that eagle was buried a bit in the vegetation and the background is a little more cluttered than I would have preferred. Still, I like the expression on the eagle’s face, the kind of semi-smile that some people make when you ask them to pose.

Later in the day the skies clouded over and the color of the background was much more subdued. Somehow, that seems to fit well with the serious expression on the face of the eagle in the first image. I like too that he was perched on a “snag,” a dead or dying tree that is still standing, so there were no distracting small tree branches.

I am always happy when I manage to see a Bald Eagle, one of the symbols of the United States, and even more thrilled when I can capture images like this one.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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