Bald Eagles in Irrigon Oregon

[Lizardman_u]

Yesterday the 3rd of January 2010 I took my wife and son out on a drive through the Irrigon Wildlife Refuge in Irrigon Oregon (about 10 miles from my house). We had a great time and saw a few varieties of hawks (which took off before I could get a picture), and some mule deer (pictures of which haven't been uploaded to photobucket yet).

shot with old 500mm lense made for 35mm camera body (which makes the focal length equivilent to 700mm due to the fact that the APS-C sensor in the digital body is smaller than the film plain in a 35mm camera body)

1/500th of a second shutter speed with apperature set to f8 (wide open for that lense), ISO setting at 1600 to compensate for lack of light on an overcast day; and I screwed up and over exposed more than five stops so the head tends to blend into the sky

shot with a 70-300mm lense for digital bodies at the 300mm focal length, f11, 1/4000 second shutter speed. Picture has been cropped.

Both of these shots were taken at a distance slightly more than 166.666 yards.

enjoy,
Dave

 

[BarbC]

Very dramatic and great shots!

 

[perrazi]

beautiful birds. during the winter, we have a lot of them right downtown cruising the river for fish. even have a winter eagle walk for people to get out and see and photograph them. they will fly right next to the bridges and watch people driving in their cars.

 

[CW Spook]

I've had one flying over the golf course behind us the past week or so. Beautiful birds and big suckers too!

 

[charlie sherrill]

I had never seen one in this area until last week. I was sent to check on an injured male bald eagle on hwy 49. He flew into a tree as I arrived. I watched him while I was waiting on the wildlife folks to get there. I could tell he was hurt but he finally flew off. We don't know what finally happened to him or where he went. I don't know if he was hit by a car or some bonehead shot him.

My brother and fellow forum member "Louisiana Joe" emailed me some pics of one in his backyard a couple of weeks ago. He watched it catch a nutria (deprived Cajun Lawyer of supper) and fly off with it. I used to see these majestic birds nesting on Horn Island about 12 miles from the mouth of the Pascagoula River. They were stocked there several years ago. I haven't seen any since Katrina and wondered if they might have moved north some.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

Here is the pictures that I took. I took them at 20x and cropped them so they are grainy.


Note the Nutria looking up at the eagle.

Eagle Flying away

 

[BarbC]

"I can see my house from heeeeere!"

 

[akviper]

I posted this a few years ago under the title of "why we don't let the cat out." He sitting in my front yard chowing down on something. They are beautiful birds and fun to watch.

This guy was hacking up a fish bone or something.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

Beautiful bird!

 

[John Eilertson]

I remember years ago, hunting a lake in SE Oregon, on dsys when I had no dog I had to, because of the quick drop off near the shore, let the strong wind carry my downed ducks to the other side. Problem was, there were some bald eagles nesting nearby, and they helped themselves to the occasional bird. I could only grin and bear it...