Until today I had always thought that hummingbirds were the only birds that can fly backwards or upside down.

Today at Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River I witnessed and documented an in air collision between two adult eagles.  I have been trying to get a full frame talon to talon grab, this was really close and maybe more rare.

Two eagles were circling looking for fish forgot to check their airspace and ran into each other. The impact completely rolled the top eagle over in mid air.  He went into a free fall before he could right himself and then continued on with his day of fishing.

Even though I clipped some wings in the series, still pretty cool!

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

I was asked today at Lock and Dam 14, how I could tell the age of the different eagles. Today there was a 4th year bird that was very active.  I call the four year olds a dirty bird (They don’t sell well).

The Bald Eagle that most everyone can identify is the adult.  This bird is described as:  large size; bright white head, neck and tail: dark brown body and wings; and bright yellow bill.  It takes 5 years to reach this plumage.

The 1st year bird is a very dark bird.  The body of this bird is two shades of brown; darker on the breast and lighter brown on the lower body.  There is no whitish triangle on the back, the upper wings are two toned brown and the bill is dark.  The head is dark as well.

First Year Bird:

Second Year Bird:

The 2nd and 3rd year birds look different from the 4th year.  The belly shows white marks.  There will also be dramatic white patches that appear in the wing-pits.  The whitish triangle often appears on the upper back of the bird and the top of the head is often whitish.  All of these markings appear on the 2nd and 3rd year bird, but a way to tell the difference between a 2nd and 3rd year bird is the tail feathers.  The 3rd year birds have all but maybe 1 of the flight feathers that are the same length…giving the trailing edge a smooth or regular look.  The 2nd year birds only have about half of the flight feathers are longer than the others…this gives the appearance of ragged or irregular feathers.

Third Year Bird:Fourth Year Bird: (The Dirty Bird):

Fifth year and older Bird:

Eagles are now living to 20 to 25 years of age in the wilds. (Yeah!)

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

Today at Lock and Dam 14 along the Mississippi River just South of Le Claire Iowa under perfect blue skies, I took 41 GIG’s of Eagle photos.  Just in case you are wondering that is 1715 images.  After the first pass through I was able to delete almost 200.  That means 1500 images to edit.  Just a few teasers for tonight.

This one reminds me of our dog Sadie the ways she cocks her head.

I was being watched!

Juvenile

The Dive

Money Shot!

Stop and Go Eagle buzzing the Lock’s traffic control. 

Almost.  Very heavy crop.  Still haven’t caught two eagles talon to talon!

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

I love my canon 1DX paired with my 500mm prime lens.  Sometimes I get lucky or unlucky and my subjects gets too close.  I could feel the down force of this wings as she few right over me!

Sick of eagle and Snowy Owl photos yet?  Got a new tip this morning on a Bobcat!  I spend 5 days stalking one in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and never got a photo, now there is one within 15 miles of my house and I am on vacation this week.  How cool would that be?  Hope my tip isn’t a wild bobcat chase!

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent