I have been trying the last two seasons to get over to Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to photograph the migration of Sandhill Cranes. JPFW is only 2:45 from my home. The weather has been gray, and I haven’t seen a blue sky in 4 weeks. What the heck I set out this morning at 3:00 AM to be there at daybreak when the Cranes are most active. I got there, no people and no cranes. They had moved about 9 miles North West up near a large power plant. Once I found them the fog had rolled in, then light snow. I have tried to photograph American Bald Eagles in bad atmospheric conditions, you would think I would have known better and stayed in bed and saved my gas. Fog, mist, “heavy air” all make for low contrast and tough photos!
Can’t hit a home run every trip! Sandhills done, bring on my beloved Eagles!
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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent
Kent,
Nice pics under difficult conditions. I thought about driving to Indiana tomorrow but came across the following “In Search of Eagles” get together hosted by several different agencies.
http://www.mccdistrict.org/rccms/
Only 20 minutes from my house and my odds of seeing an eagle tomorrow are probably as good as seeing a sandhill in Indiana. 🙂 Interesting that you posted today as I was just about to go to your site to look for your camera settings for eagles that you posted last year and see how I can apply them to my camera.
John
The Eagles are down 3 weeks early this year. As much as I hate winter, we need snow cover and colder weather to drive them to the open water on the rivers. I will switch to Bald Eagles and Snowy Owls now. You have a very active snowy owl really close to you.
I’m guessing I’ll be lucky to see an eagle tomorrow. Hopefully I be able to learn a little from the conservation officers about their movement and location along the Fox River. Perhaps they can shed some insight on snowy owls as well. Any chance you can give me a hint on the snowy owl location? 🙂
I tried looking for your post from last year on your camera settings for eagles but didn’t know how to navigate to that post. I’ll use my 6D tomorrow with my 100-400L. I know the 6d isn’t probably the best choice for birding but I’d rather use that then my 60d or sneak away from the house with my son’s 7D. I’m on the fence about replacing the 60d with the 7D Mark II. I believe Larry Williams over on Fred Miranda has recently purchased the new 7D with good results. However, I’m no Larry Williams when it comes to skill level with the camera.
I apologize if I’m rambling in your comment section.
Larry Williams is amazing, and he has giving me a ton of suggestions over the years. I am lucky to be able to call him a friend! The 60D will work, the new 7D MKII is getting really good press. I am watching the new 100-400 MKII IS.
I use and watch ebird.org for snowy owls. Here is the link to the map up by you.
http://ebird.org/ebird/map/snoowl1?neg=true&env.minX=-100.75500000000005&env.minY=35.61693680772638&env.maxX=-78.25500000000005&env.maxY=43.73522347941945&zh=true&gp=true&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=11&emo=12&yr=cur&byr=2014&eyr=2014
Thanks for the link to ebird.org. Ironically I was introduced to the site this morning by an experienced birder while visiting both the Carpentersville and Algonquin Dams on the Fox River. No eagles today but did see a Kingfisher and a couple Mallards. Very cloudy and overcast here today.
We need quite a bit of ice on the rivers to reduce the available feeding areas to the waters below the dams to improve our chances of seeing eagles. A gentleman from the DNR stated there were 15 nesting eagles along the Fox.
The active snowy in the Marengo/Genoa area is about 40 minutes west of me.