I made another sunny day visit to the Ridgefield NWR on Feb. 9, 2016. The auto tour route on the refuge is a 4-mile quasi-loop. At one point today I was positioned on the east side of the loop at the south end of Long Lake. The opposite side of the loop (to the west) is almost a half mile as the crow flies. In the center of this half mile distance across the marshy field was a mature Bald Eagle at the top of a large tree. After observing it for a few minutes the eagle took off away from me toward the opposite side of the loop. It met up with another mature eagle and they both began looping in the air and diving at ducks in the water there–waaaay over there. My task now was to drive the two miles of the loop to get over to that opposite side of the tour loop in time to catch some eagle action. It’s when I’m in a hurry that folks driving in front of me want to take their time! I finally got to the spot where I saw the eagles diving for ducks. The action was over but I was lucky to see that one of the birds had landed on this broken fence just five feet off the ground, about 200 feet off the road. I was glad I had the 7DII crop body on the 500mm lens giving me an effective 800mm focal length. It’s a back/side lit shot.
Canon 7D Mark II, 1/1600, f4, ISO 400, 500mm, 10:08 a.m.
