ML408000891
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - 1
- Playback
- Playback not used
Observation details
continuing mega rarity. extraordinarily cooperative, almost too much so. when we screamed into the parking lot here and got out of the car, it was perched in full sun in a tall pine on the west side of West Harbor Pond, across from the yacht club, and not 100 yards away. the massive eagle was facing us, which allowed for great view of the overall bulk, the massive orangey yellow bill, the beady yellow iris, the details of the shaggy brown head and breast plumage, and the white, graduated tail; but could see only a small piece of the white shoulders (and of only one shoulder to boot). after a while, then, we drifted down to the bridge below, where we could view it from more of an angle, and get a somewhat better appreciation of it. the eagle was quite aware of its surroundings, looking around constantly, but otherwise not doing much: it was big news if it do much as pulled one foot up and tucked it into the plumage. every hour or so it would act as if it might fly: pooping and wiggling the tail; or leaning forward and raising the tail (again pooping?), in each case leading to speculation that it was about to fly. and we all wanted it to fly, we wanted to see the majesty of those broad white shoulders and get a better sense of the overall heft of the bird. despite the apparent flight intention actions, and despite that fact that we were slowly dying in the brutal cold, however, the eagle stubbornly would not take flight. rarely if ever have I waited so long or suffered so much to see a rare bird in flight. after almost four hours, it finally did something dramatic, and turned around on its perch. this presented a possibility that we had not even counted upon: that it might take flight, but instead of flying right past or even over us, it might fly directly away. and that's about what it did: it soon took flight, heading away, and would have been lost behind the trees had it not angled off to the north and up a bit, so we had a decent view of it flight, albeit trending in the wrong direction. just at the end, it turned west again, and we lost it behind trees. as best that we can determine, it was not seen again for the rest of the day. many photos by Jay, Shawn (but none calendar worthy?), and many others.
Technical information
- Camera
- Canon EOS R5
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens
- Original file size
- 149.13 MB