![\"bald-eagle-3875\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/bald-eagle-3875.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-3875\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n One thing that especially appeals to me about Farmington Bay is the opportunity to photograph these eagles in flight\u00a0with the Wasatch Mountains as a background.\u00a0 Even though such a background makes it much more difficult for focus to “lock on” the bird I really like the dramatic backdrop the dark, often shaded\u00a0mountains provide when there’s light on the eagle – much more appealing for me than the typical blue sky background.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Typically there are hundreds of eagles at the refuge during “prime time”.\u00a0\u00a0 I once counted 225 birds and that’s just the ones I could see.\u00a0 Others have reported from 300-400 birds.\u00a0 This photo should give you some idea, though it shows just one\u00a0small portion of Unit One.\u00a0 The concentration of birds was about the same that day everywhere you looked over the ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 This is the famous “eagle tree”.\u00a0 I’ve seen as many as 20 birds on this one perch alone.\u00a0 Of course the eagles prefer to look south over the ice and water so it’s difficult to catch multiple\u00a0birds in the tree looking toward the photographer.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most of these birds are fairly wary of people, at least at first.\u00a0 But every year there seems to be one eagle that sort of “adopts” humans and almost seems to enjoy being very close to them.\u00a0 Two years ago this 4th year bird hung around a pole near the “owl bridge” and didn’t fly off with vehicles going by within a few feet of it.\u00a0 Notice I didn’t even need my teleconverter for this shot and it’s a small crop.\u00a0 Last year the “tame” bird was a first year juvenile (I believe) that was even more acclimated to humans and would land on perches within about 15′ of multiple photographers.\u00a0 Believe me it is very<\/em> impressive to have this huge wingspan coming at you at such close range.\u00a0 However, this type of familiarity with humans is the exception rather than the rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a01\/1250, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>Before fish become available in large numbers as a food source (more about that below) the eagles must\u00a0scrounge for themselves and competition for a meal is fierce.\u00a0 Here one of the eagles has killed a coot (under the bottom bird) and carried it out into the flats to enjoy its meal in peace but the tranquility was fleeting as three other eagles and two ravens almost immediately came in for their fair share.\u00a0 The pandemonium easily lasted for ten minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/em>Typically sometime in early February refuge personnel use rotenone (a naturally\u00a0occurring chemical found in some plants) to kill the invasive carp that cause so much damage to the marsh plants vital for waterfowl – that’s when things get really exciting at Farmington Bay.\u00a0 Usually the fish float down the stream channels and collect in\u00a0ponds or in front of bridges\u00a0which concentrates the eagles.\u00a0 Eagles are extremely competitive for food and their skirmishes can be very dramatic.\u00a0\u00a0 All this tension provides many interesting opportunities for\u00a0birders and photographers. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n