May 16 2008 Wright County Minnesota

A tip from Melinda's daughter who was on a field trip with her school had me headed to northern Wright county to see if I could find the area she had seen an eagle nest.  It took me about an hour to locate the nest with the pair of eagles in close proximity.

This is the female.  She wasn't too concerned with me being there.  It was nice to have time to play around with different exposure setting on the camera for a change.

She seemed preoccupied with whatever was going on in the pond nearby as the only time she would look at me was when I would move to keep from falling into the mud as these were taken from a flooded trail.

This is the male.  He was not nearly as comfortable with me being in thier space.  He would keep raising and lowering his head while doing this thing where he would poof out his chest at me.

At this point is was really obvious he was annoyed and was going to fly at any time.

About this time I noticed the female was also taking a more direct approach.

As I circled around  to get a different view, the male took off  to leave the area.  I was wrong.  He flew straight at me with the intention of either hitting me or giving me the message to leave.

I had to make a decision to either hit the ground or try to zoom out and frame the male as he passed a few feet away.  This was the only shot I could get before opting to duck down in the mud.

Once I regained my balance, this is the view I got as the male returned to his previous roosting spot.

This is a different eagle returning to her nest from feeding.

Note the eaglet in the nest waiting to be fed by the female.

Eagle food which escaped a pheasant farm.  The line in the middle of the photo is a strand of electric fence wire.

Renegade red squirrel.

Chipmunk trying to be sneaky.

Sunset eagle near my home a long. long ways away.

A beautiful sunset over Deer Lake marks the end to a great day.

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