Dale Matson
Click On Photographs To Enlarge
Golden Eagle Above Nest
I am blessed to know where there
are five eagle nests. When you know where the nests are, you have a much better
chance of seeing, photographing and videoing eagles. In fact, I know where
there are three nests of Golden Eagles. I enjoy photographing goldens more than bald eagles.
Two years ago, I wrote about a pair
of Golden Eagles that raised their two chicks and a Red-Tailed Hawk chick to
fledge over a period of four months. https://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2018/06/golden-eagles-part-6-epilogue.html
While they didn't use the same nest last year, I think that the
female of the pair has laid her eggs in the same nest again and have watched
them across Millerton Lake with binoculars. We’ll see.
These photographs are
from a Fresno County and a Madera County nest site. Goldens are not as
cooperative as Bald Eagles and don’t stick around for long.
The photographs were
taken with the Sony A7R4 and the Sony 200-600 G lens with a 1.4 TC. I also
cropped some of the photographs. Light is tricky and I have more poor photographs
than good ones. I usually shoot on manual,
F10, 1/1600 to 1/2000 and auto ISO. The focus zone depends and ranges from “wide”
to “center” to “spot”. For flying birds, “wide” seems the best. Eagles in a tree
almost always have intervening branches which makes focusing more difficult. While
I have the focus set for animals, I have not had the “Eye Autofocus” kick in.
Another problem with goldens is they fly low and fast. They are second only to
the Peregrine Falcon and once they take off, Katie bar the door. I would love to
have the Sony GM 400 2.8 lens but the cost is prohibitive.
Thanks to Dean for the tip on the location of Fresno County Golden Eagles.
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