Camera shy bald eagle
Bald eagle in flight
Last year a friend tipped me off to a bald eagle nest on their property an hour east of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a long lens with me to shoot it properly. So when we went for a visit this past weekend I brought my 300mm lens and a 1.7X teleconverter to extend my reach to about 500mm.
When we arrived at the nest the eagle was sitting in the tree. However, by the time I got my equipment together the eagle was in flight and heading quickly away from me. I revisited the nest a couple more times on the trip and the results were similar on each visit. This eagle wanted nothing to do with me. I saw it on each occasion, but it split when it saw me coming and didn’t return while I waited.
Today’s photo is the best I could do, and this is a 100% crop. The eagle was really nowhere near me when I took this. Maybe next time he’ll have offspring in the nest and be more willing to stick around.