Who are you calling Baldy?

A few shots of bald eagles in southern Iowa.
None of these were baited, the eagles did all the fishing on their own.
All shots taken with a Canon 30D with a Canon 400L f5.6 lens.









I know the question will be asked, 123 eagles are in this shot.

southern Iowa? wow, cool shots. That's a great place, you need to go rent a 600mm for the weekend!

Those are great, all of them. The last is a real winner. Reminds me of the Hitchcock movie. I would definitly be wearing a hat with a big brim around there.
Don't you love watching them? It is amazing to think they were down to 500 pairs on the continent at one point. How long are they there for? Except for a few, they are here about 5 weeks each year.
I saw one swoop in on a blue jay in flight yesterday, one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen- to fast to get a picture unfortunatly. What a dog eat dog world.

With so many eagles in the same place, it is little wonder that there is one grabbing a fish from another. Some good captures there. Well done.

Hey Dave,

I have never seen so many threads about eagles posted here. :P Really well done shots. The 1st and 4th are my favorites - though they are all very well done.

Cheers
James

I can't believe those shots aren't noticed more here. I keep looking at the last one. It is a real gem. Just goes to show.............

Great images! I'll agree with Tony though about renting a 600mm. I spent yesterday using the same setup as you on Eagles here in Utah. Got home last night and told my wife that I was going to rent a 600mm next year. Then she floored me by saying, "why not just finance one and buy it once the one credit card is paid off this summer?" By golly, I think I'll keep her, LOL!!

hey davev

what part of southern iowa? i'm in council bluffs and haven't seen any at lake manawa yet. for those not familiar with iowa, council bluffs is on the western edge of the state along the missouri river.

beautiful shots by the way

Don

How much do you think it costs to rent a 600mm lens? Also, since it is larger than a carry on, how do you get it from point a to b? I would freak at the concept of checking in a 5,000 lens...though I know people must do it.

James

Wow, I have never seen so many eagles in one place. How stoked you must have been. Great captures.

Wow,great images, is this over by Fulton and Lock 13 ? I have seen allot of photos from that area on Nikon Cafe, I'm going next year, with a 500, just showed this to the wife and she says shes going to !!

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Wow,great images, is this over by Fulton and Lock 13 ? I have seen allot of photos from that area on Nikon Cafe, I'm going next year, with a 500, just showed this to the wife and she says shes going to !!

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Thanks everyone.
I thought I replied to this thread, but I must have only previewed, then forgot to hit the send button.

These are from Lock and Dam 18 by Burlington.
We have gone down there 3 of the last 4 weekends.
Every weekend there have been fewer eagles, but that's not to say that there's still not a lot of them in the area.
But with some of the warmer temps that Burlington has been having, the ice is breaking up, and the eagles
are able to do they're fishing further away from people.
Of course some of them don't care if you're there or not.

I didn't get a true 600mm, I bought a 300 f2.8is and used this last weekend with a Quantaray 2X TC.
For the most part it worked pretty well. It will take me some time to learn to handle the weight of this
lens, but it will happen.

Here's a few more shots from the 16th of Feb.

A couple of flight shots.





The one that got away.



The one that didn't.



A strange looking eagle.



And finally, a standing ovation. (come on, you must be getting tired of seeing eagles by now)