Out near Silver Creek, Idaho, the bald eagles are keeping busy feeding their brood (we have no idea how many chicks there are yet). Reader Stephen Barnard sent two pictures captioned “Papa Bald Eagle bringing a trout home to his family”:
Readers’ wildlife photos
April 19, 2014 • 10:43 am
Yay dad! Way to bring home the bacon.
…er…lox? Gefilte fish?
And the framing of that top shot, with the eye just peeking between the wing feathers, is fantastic.
b&
By the way, it’s a Brown Trout.
You mean, “an ex-Brown Trout,” is more like it. Pinin’ for the ponds, it is. Gone to meet its diner. Wouldn’t swish if you pumped ten thousand gallons through it. Look — it’s even nailed to the branch, pierced through the fin!
b&
+1
Wonderful photos, Stephen. And Ben, I don’t think the fish is staked on the stick, even though it kinda looks that way. That’s Papa Eagle coming in for a landing, bearing gift, as we see in the second photo.
In the first photo the eagle has just arrived at the nest, in the air, and I believe deliberately parted his primaries to keep an eye on me, which if true is pretty amazing. The female is looking at the eaglets, her head in shadow. In the second photo the male is making a soft landing and they’re both looking at the eaglets, which are no doubt hungry.
Amazing shots… I see what you mean, as I can imagine Papa Eagle looking askance at you! You must have been clicking away rapidly, to get these shots in quick succession.
The shutter on the 5DIII that Stephen is using is one of the quietest on the market, and it has a special mode that reduces the frame rate from six per second to three but makes the sound practically inaudible.
Considering that Stephen is outdoors and using a very long telephoto lens and that the regular high-speed mode is already so quiet, I’m guessing that’s probably what he’s using — but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does use the silent mode.
b&
I don’t use the quiet mode because I want the faster frame rate.
That’s what I figured. I wouldn’t think the regular shutter is going to bother an eagle or anything else you shoot, but the slower frame rate could keep you from getting the shot. The silent mode is much more meant for things like wedding ceremonies and golf games.
b&
deliberately parted his primaries
Fascinating. Intuitively, it makes sense that primary remiges would be under the same sort of neuromuscular control as digits on a hand, but that kind of precision would be… impressive.