![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/golden-eagle-3780-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUnfortunate timing with a Golden Eagle and a minor mystery with a mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks.<\/p>\n
A couple of little things from my morning in the field three days ago that my mind keeps going back to.<\/p>\n
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Blog followers know that I have a near-obsession with Golden Eagles. But they’re hard to find and they tend to be extremely shy so getting decent photos of them is a tall order. When I do find one more often than not it’s perched on an unattractive utility pole so it really get’s my heart pumping when I find one in an attractive natural setting.<\/p>\n
I was driving slowly on a remote road when we found two Golden Eagles perched on attractive lichen-covered rocks in good light on my left – this is one of them. The gloriously magnificent eagle had its back to me but it was close and its head was turned my way so damned right, I wanted photos.\u00a0By the time I got my pickup stopped and my lens out the window I only had time for this single shot before the eagle looked forward and took off away from me. Not an ideal photo but it was a Golden Eagle so during the long drive home I kept hoping it was sharp. It was.<\/p>\n
I hadn’t even considered the possibility that the eagle would choose the exact split second my shutter fired to blink its nictitating membrane. But that’s exactly what happened so its eye is distractingly cloudy. I have nothing against nictitating membranes but I generally prefer that they not be closed in my photos.<\/p>\n
A near-everyday occurrence for me when I’m photographing birds but when it happens with a Golden Eagle in a natural setting like this its unusually painful.<\/p>\n
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In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I’d seen four pairs of mated Red-tailed Hawks that morning – this is one of them. I’m always happy to get two raptors in the same photo, especially when they’re in an attractive natural setting. These two love birds may look like they’re glaring at each other but I think that’s inaccurate. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had actually mated just before I pulled up on them.<\/p>\n
Something unusual about this photo jumps out at me. Notice that the catch light in the eye of the bird on the left is at 3 o’clock on the eyeball but the catch light of the other bird is at 9 o’clock. Normally that shouldn’t happen when the two birds are this close to each other – both catch lights should be at the same place on their respective corneas. It almost looks like a natural catch light had been missing on the hawk on the right and the photographer (me) had pulled some hanky-panky and added a fake catch light. I didn’t.<\/p>\n
This photo was taken in a remote location so I can only surmise that the catch light of one of the birds is a reflection off of my pickup.<\/p>\n
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I’m sure my readers care far less than I do about both events I’ve described and illustrated here. But as the photographer I think about this stuff and sometimes it ends up on my blog.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Addendum: <\/em><\/p>\n In the comments below several readers whose judgment I respect have challenged my explanation for the position of the catch light in one of the hawks in the photo above. However, at this point I’m still not seeing it that way, no matter how hard I try (which may be related to the reason my degree is in biology and not physics… \ud83d\ude42 ). I’m not saying I’m right, only that I don’t see the logic of any of the alternative explanations. Not yet anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n