It’s not so unusual that I would see the eagles today because I had already decided that I would wait them out. I’ve done it before, hung around for two or three hours until they made their presence known. The reason I did it today was because they are currently sitting on eggs, so if you wait long enough the egg-sitter will be relieved by his or her mate. It will happen, but it will try your patience waiting for it sometimes.
I thought I was prepared. Sneakers instead of flip flops. And I wiped myself down with a bug wipe. I rode my trike so that I would have a place to sit, to be ready to stick with it for the duration. But I was beginning to wonder if I should have brought lunch. I answered a few questions about my Liberty Trike while I waited, and gave out some of the cards that came with the trike. I highly recommend it if anyone is in the market for one. I hated to get a trike for what it implies about my elderly status, but I wanted to keep my camera in the front basket and be ready to grab it and get my shot without worry about the trike tipping over. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.After about an hour Mom, or maybe it was Dad, stood up and stretched, and then settled back down. But it gave me hope that it was nearly time for the switch.It took a while, but shortly after a fellow photographer showed up came the moment I’d been waiting for. It wasn’t as dramatic as I may have hoped. She laughed over the fact that she pulled her car over and had her shot five minutes later.He/she didn’t go far, just to a branch right above the nest.Some more poses. I was shooting bursts, so this whole escapade netted me 664 photos to go through.And then it happened.I guess it was time, and off she went. I see fringing in this shot, but I can’t do anything about it on the iPad. Or I don’t know how to is probably more correct.This snag up the way was where he/she landed and stayed a while. Looking toward the water for a bit of lunch maybe? This is zoomed out for the scene, but I had my 100-400 lens on so I could zoom closer, thankfully.If you are watching a bird and you see it poop, it’s going to fly. Or so our group leader says. So I was ready to see it happen. Flying I mean, not pooping. But a pooping picture isn’t bad either.I waited and nothing happened, so then I walked up the street to where my new photographer friend was standing to get a closer up shot since he was still posing.Still more posing. A biker that I had talked with earlier came by and she said I scared her because she saw my trike and my tripod, but I wasn’t there. She thought I got snatched. Then she spotted us and was thrilled to get a shot of this eagle herself.I figured two hours was enough, and I knew I had a lot of pictures, but I waited some more when I got back to the trike. And this was my reward, he took off, but dropped straight down out of sight, no nice soaring eagle shot.
Living on the Nature Coast of Florida provides constant photo ops, and I need an outlet to share what I see. And sometimes what I think...
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