Some pics from this morning's trip to Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. Between October and February, the dam is host to one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles in the continental U.S.

 

Some greats shots! Love seeing the Southwest jet in the background!

 

Great shots Dan! That one shot looks like that Eagle was right over your head. Do you hand hold when you go?

After looking in here…I have to get back down there. This weekend the weather is supposed to suck tho.

 

Boeing bokeh.

 

Yes, I'm one of the relatively few there who hand hold, partially because I have a cheap-o tripod and also because I shoot just about everything that passes nearby. As you know, most of the serious photographers are there just to capture a shot of an eagle fishing or two eagles fighting. They pretty much ignore everything else. Not me, I'm one of those noobs who will easily fill up a memory card in a morning and then spends hours deleting all of the crappy shots, wondering why the hell I took them in the first place.

Saturday's forecast has improved significantly -- now partly sunny and a high near 50 but breezy. But Sunday is going to be frigid (high of 37) and windy and it's going to be cold pretty much through next week.

 

I use my Wimbley for my big lens and keep another on my shoulder to catch the flyovers into the trees.

 

Probably not going tomorrow, looking like Saturday.

 

Saturday I'll be at the Towson game, my daughter is in the marching band. Next week is not looking good for me at this point.

From what I heard from some the pros up there the holy grail of eagle shots is the final approach with talons extended, tail dragging in the water and the fish visible in the water. Bonus points if the eagle is banded and you can read the number to determine where the eagle is from. Some of the photogs up there are only looking for that shot because they have everything else.

 

Towson's having a great year! My son's a snare drummer in the Maryland drumline so we'll be at the Maryland / Boston College game tomorrow (last home ACC game ever).

 

What a bust at Wingo today. Got there are 7:15am, not one shot worth a damn. Only one eagle going for fish the entire three hours.

Left at 10:15. Didn't get above 50 degrees and wind was about 20mph.


Will try again BF.

 

That sucks. Hopefully Black Friday will work out better.

 

Incredible shots, Dan!

 

Not my pic, from one of my contacts on Flickr. This is an amazing eagle shot, at 400mm only.

 

^
Can't see the pic.

 

I can't seem to embed this one. Let's try the direct link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/okiebill/11346918194/

 

That's the kind of shot most eagle photographers dream of!

 

Yea, it doesn't get much better than that. Only thing missing is the band on the leg.

 

Nice shots and wow, that is a lot of eagles.

 

Hey DanL, and anyone else in Maryland.

If you weren't already aware there is an active eagle nest in Ellicott City on Folly Quarter Road. If coming in from the Route 40 side it is near the far end, just before the traffic circle and just before the University of Maryland Research Center.

It sits about 100 yards off the road on the right on the edge of a large field. I drove by it on Sunday but didn't see any eagles. It is on private property and with the snow there is no place to pull over and park.

I am going to try and keep an eye on it to see how active it is (others I know have seen eagles there recently).

 

Cool...didn't know that. It's only a few miles away so I'm going to have to check it out once the mounds of snow melt further.

 

I was hoping for some new shots!