Out for a walk in the gorgeous-if-cold sunshine this afternoon. I'd just
decided to turn around and head back home when I noticed an immature bald
eagle floating overhead. Missed that one with my camera but started taking
pictures when crow swooping alerted me to (another?) eagle sitting on a snag
nearby. Click-click-click, rejoicing in the advent of digital cameras that
let me not worry about wasting film.

The perched eagle suddenly took off (from still to full wingspan in <7
seconds), and I followed it with my camera, clicking as fast as I could
figure out how to make my camera go. I was thinking that if I took as many
pictures as I could, there'd be at least a chance that some of them might
come out in focus. (Autofocus kept choosing the wrong thing to focus on, so
I had to resort to manual.) I was pretty sure I'd taken a long series of
almost-identical soaring-eagle shots.

After I got back home and downloaded the photos, I discovered I'd happened
to catch a couple of nifty things! The first was the eagle in the process of
breaking off a branch, and the second was some acrobatics performed with the
branch. (There was a stiff north wind, and I can't decide whether s/he was
showing off or just losing grip.)

Anyway, I thought I'd post these on Flickr for anyone interested. (Be
forewarned, though - I wasn't very successful in my manual focusing, which
was pretty frustrating to discover - but still you can see what's
happening.) Here's the address: http://flickr.com/photos/21030079 at N06/.

Good birding,
Trileigh

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Trileigh Tucker
West Seattle