Bald Eagles in St. Mary's County

I've been seeing a lot of bald eagles lately.  They are bolder in the winter when the ospreys aren't around.  I suspect that there is a family of three eagles.  There is an immature brown and white eagle and two adult bald eagles.  I rarely see all three of them at once.  This week I mostly photographed one adult eagle sitting on the osprey nest, having breakfast.  The other eagles were flying around, and the one on the nest was squawking at them.  They never seem to visit when the light is good and early in the morning, but I dutifully photograph them anyway.  The sky and the water were somewhat gray on this particular day. 

January!  After being inside a little too much lately, I decided to use the  ”Birding in Southern Maryland” brochure by the Southern Maryland Audubon Society to get out of the house and check out some local birds.  I got a copy of the brochure from the St. Mary’s County Department of Tourism and I also included the online link.  I armed myself with my new Sigma 150-500 mm lens and my Nikon D600.  The brochure turned out to be accurate.  The information in the brochure took me to a nearby swampy farming area not far from the water.  I quickly saw a bald eagle before I could pull out my camera.  I later spotted a great blue heron in a field, lots of bluebirds sitting on a wire and three European Starlings sharing some branches.

If you want to try birding, I can recommend the brochure.

Great Blue Heron Portrait Session.

After the osprey leave our nearby nest, other birds such as bald eagles and great blue herons often visit to look around and “play” in a borrowed nest.  I wanted to share a sequence of photos of this great blue heron. It was feeling lively on the particular day I photographed and I was thrilled with the various poses that resulted.  It was almost like having a family portrait session. Now let me see your right profile, your left profile and please lift your right leg, thank you!   I was glad I had the patience to wait for all of the ways it moved.   Now if only I could do it again with a longer lens.  These are all heavily cropped from the originals.

This last photo was taken on another day when it was windy, but I think it is the same heron posing.