Two days ago, I glanced across the lake to the small island that is directly across from us and saw a bald eagle on the shoreline. Kathie quickly grabbed our best telephoto lens and the camera and began to take pictures. This is one of those times that an even stronger telephoto lens would be fun to have. This one (a 400mm lens) does well, but it would have been fun to zoom in even closer. Nevertheless, she got some good pictures. You can click on each one to see a larger image.
When we first spotted the eagle, we noted that it had evidently just caught a fish, which you can see in its talons in this picture.
We were surprised to see that this eagle had evidently attracted the attention of others, because three other bald eagles soon arrived, seeiming to believe that they too should have some of the fish. One of them was a juvenile who had not yet developed the pure white head and tail nor the nice dark brown body feathers. Until they are over about two years old, they are a much less attractive and mottled grey-brown and white color.
There was quite a lot of screeching and some fighting going on. At one point, the juvenile managed to get to the fish while the others were "having words." That resulted in the original eagle attacking it and forcing it into the water–there was a pretty clear pecking order, at least where this youngster was concerned. Note how it now keeps its distance in this picture.
After all the commotion, the fish dinner seemed to disappear, and the eagles left one by one. The last eagle to depart was the juvenile, who spent a little time cleaning up what few crumbs of fish remained before taking flight.
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