Jude 2

I love little suprises (most of the time), and in a way I loved what happened this morning. The morning was warm and the sky clear, a bright sun promises good light for photography. So I set up my camera, determined to use as many different setting as possible, to find the limitations of the camera. There is a knarled old pine tree several blocks distance from my sister's house that the crown of is visible from her back yard. I find this old tree to be visually interesting as it has been shaped by years of coastal storms, a great subject for a photographic study.

I set up and using only the 1.7X of the tele-converter shot a picture to give scale to the magnification of the pictures that would follow.



I then started playing around with the magnification, shutter speed, and aperture. After about a dozen pictures I shot this one at 7X (7 x 1.7 = 11.9) which is actually almost 12X with the tele-converter. I didn't go to a higher magnification because I want to maintain the entire crown in the picture.



Later, when I started editing the pics that I had taken, I discovered two large brown birds with white heads and tail feathers. I believe that they are American Bald Eagles. I had not noticed them before because I was concentrating on the branches in the center of the picture.



Now I'm annoyed with myself for not seeing them while I was shooting. If I had noticed them I would have increased the magnification to it's max (20.4X) and gotten a really good look at them. But I'm still happy to have even gotten them in a picture at all.


TW

We have American Bald Eagles in the area, for a while we thought they would disappear from here but they have been making a comeback in the last several years. Since I am only about 1/2 block off the Indian River and we have a lot of large old trees all kinds of birds come to the area. We have an Osprey that likes to sit in the pine tree at the corner of my and my next door neighbor's yard and eat his catch. So far I have not been able to get a picture because when I go out in the yard he takes off but I'll keep trying. We have a huge owl that sits in the oak tree in the yard behind mine during the night, I take my dachshund out around 4:30 - 5 AM every morning and I am always on the watch for it. Today I watched some squirrels collecting material for their nest. It suprises me sometimes to see all the wildlife right here in the middle of town.

Thats cool!!!

Last time I got to see an American Bald Eagle was when I was in Alaska...

They look great when in flight and still low enough that you can see their features.

rjc
We have a huge owl that sits in the oak tree in the yard behind mine during the night, I take my dachshund out around 4:30 - 5 AM every morning and I am always on the watch for it.

RJC, might stay really close to the dog as owls will make a meal out of a small dog or cat.

So will an eagle.

oletimer wrote:

rjc
We have a huge owl that sits in the oak tree in the yard behind mine during the night, I take my dachshund out around 4:30 - 5 AM every morning and I am always on the watch for it.

RJC, might stay really close to the dog as owls will make a meal out of a small dog or cat.

So will an eagle.

Thanks, I do stay outside with her but if the owl or the eagle try to pick her up they will be in for a big suprise, she has a weight problem, 30 pounds to be exact. For years we have tried to get her weight down but now that she is almost 17 and has cancer I am not worrying about her weight. The vet thought she would die before Thanksgiving but she is still with us and actually since TW has been here she has perked up some, she has always loved him.

The owl might not try it with her being that big, but the eagle might try it and even if it couldn't pick it up, there would still much damage done.

That close to the river do you ever see any alligators?

My Stepson lives a couple of blocks north of me on the river also and there is a gator nest at the end of the yard 2 houses down from him. The yards slope down to the river and at the end of the yard there is about 10 - 15 feet of river bank. We see gators frequently when we take a drive along Merritt Island, this island runs from just north of the Eau Gallie causeway (a couple of blocks north of me) in the Indian River all the way up to north of Kennedy Space Center.