![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sunrise-9751-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sunrise-9751-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nBut this is what greeted me at sunrise as I arrived on site an hour and a half later\u00a0– a thick wall of clouds (that hadn’t shown up on the satellite loop)\u00a0moving in from the north (left)\u00a0which very soon completely obscured the sun. This was the best light I had all morning and it very quickly got much worse. It could be\u00a0argued that my best shot of the entire long morning was this one.<\/p>\n
I go into all this to provide myself\u00a0an excuse for the image quality of the following photos. For this Golden Eagle series the light was so poor I had to shoot at ISO 2500 to get enough shutter\u00a0speed for flight shots. I almost never use ISO’s this high – the only time I’ve ever done it in the past was shooting\u00a0Sage Grouse on a lek long before sunrise. Because of my high ISO and the fact that I didn’t take the time to mask and sharpen the eagle selectively there’s some noticeable noise in the images, the photos aren’t quite tack sharp\u00a0and because of the poor light some of the shaded areas have less detail than I prefer.<\/p>\n
But hey, it was a Golden Eagle in flight so how could I not post the images! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n We’d left the area where we had\u00a0photographed kinglets and warblers the day before\u00a0in discouragement when we found this juvenile Golden Eagle\u00a0on the steep hillside above us. At first the bird was facing to the left but when it turned around to face downhill I figured it was about to take off (taking off downhill requires less energy and this direction also provided the bird a bit of a headwind for extra lift).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And that’s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Golden Eagles can have a wingspan of over 7 ft. so\u00a0they’re very impressive to see up close in a pose like this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Those\u00a0white patches on the ventral surfaces of the wings\u00a0are indicative of a juvenile bird.<\/p>\n Whenever I see primary feathers bent and\u00a0curved by air resistance\u00a0like\u00a0those on this left wing I have to marvel at the incredible adaptations\u00a0of feathers for flight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The lower legs (tarsi) of Golden Eagles are feathered all the way down to the toes. It can be difficult for novices to\u00a0tell the difference\u00a0between\u00a0Golden Eagles and\u00a0immature Bald Eagles but this is one of the differences that can be used to distinguish them\u00a0since Bald Eagles don’t have feathered tarsi.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This was the last shot I got that was sufficiently sharp in this awful light. I was pleasantly surprised that I have light in the eye in every shot even though the catch lights are often diffused.<\/p>\n My\u00a0tough luck with Golden Eagles continues. Wouldn’t you know that the one time I get close to my nemesis (and it even\u00a0takes off at a\u00a0perfect angle)\u00a0the light….. just…… sucks.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – Don’t get me wrong. I was absolutely delighted just to see this bird at a relatively close distance – that experience actually saved my day. But it sure would have been nice if the light had been better and\/or the weather forecasters actually knew what they were talking about.<\/em><\/p>\n And apologies to any of my readers who may be\u00a0in the business of weather forecasting but after this experience (and many, many\u00a0others just like it) that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now.<\/em><\/p>\n And by the way, yesterday I forgot to mention that two days ago I saw my first Bald Eagle of the season, an adult, flying high over the Bear River. They’re returning already!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If my bird photography success rate was as low as the accuracy rate of weather forecasters I think I’d sell my camera gear and hang it up…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n