Freedom Flight....

We were heading down on a trip to visit a friend and on the side of the road was:

THIS!!!!:

He was eating road kill and then took off in a wonderful, wide wing-spreaded flight!

A glorious sight!:

This is an over-exposed shot of him on the side of the road, right before he flew:

(I was in a hurry. It was very sunny....so I just shot the shot from my camera, no time to make adjustments!)

When he took off, he soared and soared above my head.  I thanked him for letting me take his photo, but I was also a little scared he was going to land on my head with those claws!:

Here is a little blurry version of a closeup:

Look at the wingspan and those feathers!!:

And those white tailfeathers fanning out!:

Wow!!!:

One gorgeous, huge eagle:

I know they can be mean and kill other animals.

But I am still in awe of this majestic breed of birds.....

and I was SO happy to catch one on camera that day.

Eagle Scout

As I have commented on many of your blogs, we have really been outside a lot over the last few weeks, enjoying the last bit of warm weather here in the U.P. before the cool days of autumn really get here.

We have tried to go out on our lake on our boat every day, at least for a little while.

We have 2 or 3 eagles that live on our lake. Two immature eagles and one bald headed eagle adult.

Through riding around so much, we have found some of their favorite perching sites and I am thrilled to take as many pictures of them as I can.

I think the adult bald eagle is getting pretty used to me by now. He usually stays perched in the tree and waits for me to click off many pictures and doesn't fly away anymore. He even whistled a bit at us the last time we came by him, as if to say hello.

They usually sit way high, on the highest tree possible in the places they like on the lake. One island in particular has a dead tree they like and the other favorite spot is a tall pine tree by one of our favorite fishing spots.

Here he is in the setting sun one night on the bare tree:

Just look at those piercing eyes and sharp beak!:

Here he is saying: "Oh, you guys AGAIN?":

"Would you like my regal profile this time?":

"I think I will ignore you. Maybe you will go away?":

This night he peeked over the branches at us as we drove by:

It is rare that we are quiet enough to catch him napping:


I don't know why, but on this day, we saw him with fuzzy feathers stuck on his beak and below his beak. Maybe he had a snack of another bird?:

Bored with several pictures in a row, he tucked his beak in his chest and went back to napping again:

I am glad he isn't upset with me taking so many pictures of him.

Because, you know me.

I will be back.

Taking more....