Today, Dec. 29, 2014, I witnessed a little family skirmish between an immature Bald Eagle and its two parents. Now I could easily be wrong and it’s always possible that the mature eagles aren’t even related to the youngster–but it makes for a good story! Today’s image is just one of a series I took of this interaction and the young one gets the short end of the stick.
The mature eagle (on the left side of the photo) had landed on the grass. After a few minutes the immature flew in as if to ‘attack’ the older eagle. The two began jumping and wrestling around. It wasn’t long and another mature eagle flew in and showed the youngster who is boss. More images on that later!
UPDATE: Nov. 6, 2015 – this image won 2nd place in the 2015 Ridgefield NWR Photo Contest.
Canon 5D Mark III, 1/1250, f4, ISO 1600, 500mm, 9:25 a.m.
Very very cool moment captured!! Excited to see more!;) so cool how you are always in the right place at the right time to capture such fantastic moments as these!! Happy 2015!
Hi Christy, thanks for the nice comment! I only WISH I were always in the right place at the right time! 🙂 I first spotted these birds in the air and moved to a position where I’d be closer. Luckily (and there’s always some luck involved with wild creatures), the first bird landed about 150 feet from me (relatively close for large birds), and the action took off from there. So part of my luck I make myself by quickly getting to the best spot I can, and the rest of my luck is totally up to the wild creatures I shoot! And of course, then there’s the task of making the image once the birds are in front of me–but that’s a whole other story! Glad you liked the shot!!
A superb photo Dennis – action, composition, detail and good light, it’s got everything.
Thanks for your nice comment, Tony! and for being a follower of my site. Glad you liked the shot!