photography

Category

By honest…

Honest, there is a great blue heron in the photo!
The high waters of the lake have flooded all of the shoreline.
This allows the heron to stalk his fish and other snacks far into the tree line.
The lanky body of the heron becomes almost invisible until a stray sun beam lights his eye.

gbh fishing flood

By weather stirred eagles…
I watched the juvenile eagle soaring along just below the ridge of trees.
Suddenly an adult eagle took exception to the intruder and a brief skirmish ensued.
The adult trounced the juvie.
Wish I had been close enough for the photos to be sharper,
but thought y’all might like to see the encounter anyway.
The storms of the past few days have made for an influx of birds I don’t know
and that makes life very interesting!

adult eagle chasing juvie 1

adult eagle chasing juvie

adult eagle chasing juvie 2

adult eagle chasing juvie 4

adult eagle chasing juvie 3

By through the trees

I heard the angry scream of an eagle behind me.
Turning around I missed the shot of a two or 3 year old eagle speeding through the trees.
What I did get was this 4 year old eagle.
Mad, angry, and in pursuit of the immature eagle that had preceded it past my line of sight.
I have no idea of why the chase but it sure set my heart racing.

4 yo eagle thru trees

By turtle rescue and release
My friend and I realized this turtle was not moving through the water.  It was tangled in fishing line, hooks and sinkers.
The turtle couldn’t break free from the tangled mess.
Taking some discarded fishing line, a couple of hooks I found in the trash along the shore line and some sinkers we also found, my friend made a “fishing rig”.
Then he quite expertly hand cast the line past the turtle and hauled the line in with the turtle snagged in his rig.
After wading ashore my friend and I worked the fishing lines off and removed the hooks and weights.
We sat the turtle down at the edge of the water and waited.
The turtle poked his head out and up.  The right front foot reached out and then the left front foot.  Soon followed by the hind feet and tail.
Realizing he was free the turtle scooted into the waves and was gone.  We were glad to see him go!  See the video below the photo for the turtle  release.
turtle rescue

By I was asked if the young hawk was ok…

Here is a closeup of the harassed immature red-tailed hawk from this morning.
He is keeping a sharp eye on the squawking crows – who are just outside of the photo’s edge.
I watched him for close to an hour. He rested at several points but the crows would find him again. He finally yelled at the crows and flew up and over the trees, heading south. The hawk was not in any physical danger – the crows know just how far they can push the envelope. And the gangsters acknowledge the hawk’s ability to turn tail on a dime and strike them, although birds are not the red-tail’s preferred food. The crows also knew that this was an immature bird and that they were in less danger from it than if it had been an experienced mature bird. The hawk was frustrated but not hurt.

red-tailed at rest