A dark spot in the snow
Eagle eye spots young eagle in the snow, writes wildlife photographer Dave Ellis
A little while back we were driving home late one afternoon after a relatively uneventful day of looking for wildlife to photograph.
We were no more than a couple of kilometres from home so thoughts were starting to drift to the comforts of a nice warm meal and a relaxing chair. Out of the blue, Astrid asks, “Did you see that dark spot out in the snow behind that house?” just as it disappeared behind the house and a hill.
“No, was it something?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t get a good look at it. It might have been a turkey or a coyote. It was pretty close to the house so it may have been the homeowner’s dog.”
“I guess we should go back and have a look,” I said.
So I turned the van around and went back. As I pulled the van off to the side of the road I realized, “I think it might be an eagle.”
“Can’t be, look how close it is to that house.”
Well, after getting out the binoculars to get a closer look we found that it was indeed a young eagle, and it was feeding on a leftover coyote carcass that was mostly buried under the snow. One more second and we would have missed it. Even more fortunate, we knew the people that lived in the house and had permission to go on their property, so we could get closer to try to get some photos of this scene.
I carefully pulled into the homeowner’s driveway and positioned us toward the field where the eagle was. It was a young eagle so it was not as wary as an adult would have been, but just to make sure we didn’t scare the eagle off its meal we remained in the van and shot out of the windows.
The eagle did look up to suss us out but went right back to eating its meal. You cannot sneak up on an eagle. They see everything.
The young eagle had to work very hard for every bite it got off this carcass. First it had to get through and discard the fur, and then it had to deal with frozen meat. Luckily though, bald eagles have very strong talons and beaks and can exert a great deal of pressure with either. The eagle was able to pull off sizeable chunks of meat to fill its belly. It ate and ate for what seemed like a very long time. Good for the young eagle. It was getting much needed nourishment at the hardest time of the year.
It is probably not often that this young eagle gets a whole meal all to itself like this. Usually if one eagle has spotted a meal, it is not long before other eagles spot it and move in to share in the feast. Bald eagles do not miss much.
Eventually the young eagle had its fill and stepped back to stretch and let some of the food settle. It wiped its beak in the snow and walked a few feet away from the remainder of the carcass, I’m sure making a mental note of its location.
Then it raised its wings as high as it could to full extension for a powerful down stroke to lift itself airborne.
“Click” I love to get that shot. In that one stroke the eagle was in the air and was on its way. A couple of nice flight shots as it flew away and our work was done here.
We felt so fortunate to have caught this scene at the last moment and left as satisfied as the well-fed eagle. I said to Astrid, “Good eye” and we continued home for our meal.
After getting out the binoculars to get a closer look we found that it was indeed a young eagle