Category Archives: Canon RF100-500mm

Aging of Eagles 2

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Aging of Eagles Part 2:

I had several people ask how to tell how old the Juvenile Eagles are. Here are some reference photos of all 5 stages of them maturing. The age is under each photo in the description. I haven’t seen many mud heads (3.5) year old Eagles this year.
 
.5 year old (Black Beak)
 
 
1.5 year old (Black and Yellow Beak)
 
 
2.5 year old (Yellow Beak)
 
 
3.5 year old (Mud Head)
 
 
4.5 year old (head not pure white, some white still under the wings)
 
 
5 year old + (Mature Adult)
 
Reference Photo – Not mine.
 

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Life is good and I am blessed!
Kent

Eagles at Tailwaters West

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Thursday January 22nd, 2026. I was bored so I went Eagling over in Iowa yesterday.

L&D14: zero eagles after reports of 25+ yesterday.
L&D15: 6-8 eagles mostly juveniles active 3/4’s of the way across lots of Pelicans. A few fly overs.
Credit Island: city crew out cutting up downed trees. Zero eagles
Concord street: some open water South of the Blue 280 bridge. 3 Eagles sitting on the ice. So far zero activity.
So I drove another hour to Iowa City, Power Plant roller dam, 20 eagles active and some fishing. Parking there is an issue. I walked the railroad tracks down to the foot path and then walk back to north to the roller dam. Long lens needed. Eagles turned off at 2:45 pm.
I then headed to the Tailwater’s West for the golden hour: 12 eagles in the cottonwood tree by the boat ramp. The pool is mostly iced over. 6 – 8 active eagles sitting in the trees by the chute. Flow rate from the dam was way down, but when a fish did show up, there was action, fishing and chasing. 3:30 – 4:45pm. It is a special place and could be as good as L&D 14 was back in the days before the trees died. too bad it is 3 hours from home. Seems to be best the first hour, and the last hour of the day.
 
The next 7 – 10 days should keep getting better, as more rivers ice up and snow should cover the ground.
 
Camera Settings
Canon R5.2
Canon RF600
Handheld
1/2500
F4
ISO 800 – 3200 (AUTO)
 
Full fishing sequence.
 

Fly by with fish.

quartering away.

Juvenile is golden hour light.

Lots of American White Pelicans at Lock & Dam 14 and Lock & Dam 15.  The males are just starting to get their breeding hump on their bills.

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Life is good and I am blessed!
Kent

Long Ear Owls

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I decided when Sharon told me we were moving back to Illinois, that I would try and complete my bucket list of all the owls in North America. I took a huge step forward the last two seasons.

January of 2024, at Sax Zim Bog (SZB) I got my Great Gray Owl (GGO)
January of 2025 at Two Harbors and SZB I got my Boreal Owl

So this year’s goal was / is a Saw Whet Owl. That hasn’t happened yet, but was able to cross off Long Ear Owl (LEO) today. In fact I spent the morning with 6 or 7 and was able to get some mostly clear photos. The long-eared owl are a medium-sized owl, which measures between 12 and 16 inches in height. The males are much skinnier and lanky compared the larger females. The males have much more facial coloring.

Today was a long but great day in the field: LEO’s, and also a Great Horned Owl (GHO) on eggs already, and finished off with another beautiful juvenile male Snowy Owl (SNOW). Pretty much from 4:00 AM – 3:30 PM.

Photos of the GHO and SNOW to follow as I get them edited. Time to suck it up and start putting miles in the woods to find my Northern Saw Whet Owl (NSWO)! Anybody have any leads on a NSWO or Barn Owl and willing to share PLEASE msg me!

After the Saw Whet, I’ll still need a Barn Owl, Pigmy Owl and the smallest of them all an Elf Owl.

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Life is good and I am blessed!
Kent

First Snowy Owl of 2026

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My first two raptors of the 2026 year.
 
Got 2 tips this morning on a snowy owl back in my home county. As soon as I was done with my noon haircut, I headed to go see if I could find her. Sure enough within 1/4 mile of where I was told she was last seen. Not a great photo, but more of a documentation type shot. The close up photo was shot at 1200mm f8 out the car window. The full frame shot was at 500mm to show just how hard it can be to spot this beautiful creatures. I actually really started liking this shot as I was processing it. We are doing our best to keep this female snowy owl’s location off all the birding site. Who knows, but my story is this is one of the Montrose Owls that was pushed further South. I sat and watched her for 87 minutes until she decided to fly deeper into the field.
 
On the drive home I spotted what I thought was a Juvenile American Bald Eagle, so I spun the truck around and went back. To my surprise, it was the largest red tail hawk I have ever seen. Maybe fresh blood on it’s beak.
 
 
All in all, a good day out glassing the back roads.

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Life is good and I am blessed!
Kent

Drop-tine checkup

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Been home from the Wild West Trip for a month.  Decided it was time to go check on this years crop of Whitetails.  Rut is still 2-3 weeks away and saw no bucks chasing does yet.  I was able to find (Little Drop Tine) LDT.  He looks way better after getting rid of his summer coat and rubbing off his velvet. No other mature bucks found yet.  Seems to be a ton of small bucks, but the big boys aren’t showing up yet.

8/11/25 still in Velvet

10/23/25  Beefing up for Rut.  Neck and chest filled in nicely.

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Kent