Juvenile Eagle in Homer

by | Jul 27, 2012 | Wildlife

This image was taken when I was in Homer in July 2012. The weather was not great – as might be apparent in the image taken here – and the float plane that we were hoping to take out to Hallo Bay to see the bears could not fly this day. I asked around the town what there was to see or do but with a population of 5500 people odd – which drops off a lot in winter seemingly – your options are limited. It is either bears or fishing. The eagles are still around even though the Eagle Lady passed away in 2009. Seemingly they gather around the local dump in winter time as an easy place to gather food so we headed up there to see if we could find anything.

I spotted a few eagles further back in the tree line but there were too far away to get a shot. This juvenile was on a heap of dirt surrounded by ravens and he posed just long enough to get this image of him before flying off to the shelter of the tree line approximately 100m away.

I was using the best hide of all for this shot – the rental car. I had the window down and rested the lens on the door frame and composed the shot. I placed my fleece under the lens to help with vibrations etc.

Equipment used:

Camera: Canon 1D Mark IV
Lens: Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS + 1.4 EF II Teleconverter ( effectively 700mm)
Shot from the door of the car – using the car as a hide
EXIF: ISO 1600 f/5.6 1/1000 0ev 700mm

Snowy Owl in Finland

by | Apr 22, 2012 | Wildlife

We were in Finland in April 2012 on the search for the elusive Wolverine – that rare and secretive animal that tends to come out at night and is extremely shy. On the road north however, as we were travelling towards Rovaniemi and Lokka Lake, we came across this beautiful bird that was visiting a farm area in the neighbourhood. I got this shot as the owl took flight from a telephone pole and flew straight across the field and landed on another pole on the far side of the field.

I was lucky in that I was crossing the field and setup my tripod to capture him resting on the pole. Within minutes he took off and flew to my right across the field. This image was captured as he flew over the field and rested on his new perch. He stayed here for another hour at least before we had to depart and get back on the road and head north again.

We were in Finland in April 2012 on the search for the elusive Wolverine – that rare and secretive animal that tends to come out at night and is extremely shy. On the road north however, as we were travelling towards Rovaniemi and Lokka Lake, we came across this beautiful bird that was visiting a farm area in the neighbourhood. I got this shot as the owl took flight from a telephone pole and flew straight across the field and landed on another pole on the far side of the field.

I was lucky in that I was crossing the field and setup my tripod to capture him resting on the pole. Within minutes he took off and flew to my right across the field. This image was captured as he flew over the field and rested on his new perch. He stayed here for another hour at least before we had to depart and get back on the road and head north again.

Here is a shot of the owl as he took off from the pole before he crossed the field – here  – nicely captured by another photographer who was under the pole and lucky in his positioning in the field.

Equipment Used:

Camera: Canon 1D Mark IV Camera
Lens: Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS
Tripod: Gitzo 3341XL Tripod & Wimberly II Head
EXIF: ISO 200 f/5.6 1/2500 +0.67ev 500mm