A YOUNG EAGLE

If you are arriving here from Face Book, this blog entry is exactly the same as the Face Book entry.  Might be a bit more dialog but nothing of earth shattering consequence.  Thanks for looking in.

I watched something this afternoon I have never seen before or even heard of. I noticed a bald eagle youth far out in the distance in a tree. My point of travel would take me directly toward the shoreline he was on. I watched him lift off the tree branch he was perched upon and circle behind the island out of sight. All of a sudden he appeared in the tree tops that held great blue heron nests (rookery). The young eagle flew through the nesting area striking the sides of at least two nests with his talons or wings causing tiny puffs of grass and dust to appear as he passed by. The herons instantly flew from their nests at the immature eagle's appearance on the scene.  You can see the last heron flying away in the upper left corner of the above picture.   I don't know if this was a territorial dispute or just a show of power. Wildlife do not usually boast about their power so I suspect this eagle was irritated at the heron's presence. The rookery has been there for three years at least so it was there before the eagle. But, the eagle is lord of the lakes and he is boss. I'll watch how this unfolds through Spring. I counted 9 separate individual immature bald eagles this afternoon in a three hour period on Douglas Lake.

 These shots were taken at extremely long distances and back lighted badly.  I apologize for the poor quality of the photography.  Sometimes ya just have to accept the situation and all its deficiencies and deal with it.

 I shot these pictures in RAW format and I think it helped on the back lighting.  The shadows and dark areas caused by the inaccurate meter readings due to over-brightness were more easily manipulated when I prepared the pictures for posting. RAW sure takes up a lot of room on the photo card though.

 Look at the power this bird exudes!  He is amazing to look at in action, and pretty impressive when just standing on a tree branch.