You never write..

I've been a little lax in my blogging, but as much with my shooting... Sorry...

This past Saturday my dogs and I went for a walk around Windsor Lake.  I took my camera as usual, but for some reason I decided to mount my 100-400mm zoom.  I usually take my 24-105mm for more versatility, but something made me switch.  And I'm glad I did. The first half of the walk I thought I wouldn't get a chance to use it though.

All that changed on the south side of the lake.  All the geese were hanging out there and I managed to get one interesting shot - I'd never seen them line up like this before:

But of course, they only showed me their butts.  That seems to be all I ever get from geese.  Long before I get in range they're moving away.  And you can forget sitting and waiting for them to ignore me - the dogs keep moving around and scaring them off.  However, I thought this marching (paddling?) line was interesting enough to capture...

All those birds and all I can get are the back sides. (sigh) So we move on.  Nothing else of interest, we get back to the car and load up.  I'm pulling away, look over at the other small lake on the west side of the road and freak out when I see this guy:

This is a major crop from the original image shot.  This guy is on the far side of the lake, and he's just a small part of the whole image.  I left the dogs in the truck and walked the path that wound around the lake to see if I could get closer. No such luck.

But, there were some gulls that gave me some good shots:

This last shot was taken after I'd come back around to the east end of the lake and hunkered down in the grass at the water's edge.  I caught him out of the corner of my eye while watching the eagle, and quick-snapped this image.  Even though his wing is cut in the image, I still like this shot!

My hands are starting to get really cold and stiff, and I'm ready to pack it in when a shadow cuts across the ground directly in front of me:

This guy never came down, and never got any closer than the other eagles.  This, however, isn't as drastic a crop as I liked the scale of him against the clouds... It's a cool effect: when they're circling as he was, they give you an almost perfect profile, and it gives the illusion that you're up in the sky with her.

(I know,  I know - I referred to the bird as "him" at first, but I'm an equal opportunity sex-guesser! So, there you go).


Hope you enjoyed...