It Almost Feels Like Cheating
I had a free day and the tides and weather were right, and so I made my way out to a place near Seabeck known as Big Beef Creek. This is a well-known hangout for both Bald Eagles (and other species) and, of course, Bald Eagle photographers. It also happens to be five minutes from my house.
Whenever there are low tides, especially negative tides, it exposes a wide swath of tidepools and the shoreline, and the place can turn into a very popular lunch spot for not just Bald Eagles, but Crows, Ravens, Great Blue Herons, and various shorebirds. On these days, especially on weekends, it can also be a complete zoo, since parking is limited and in pull-outs along the side of the road. I’d driven past here over the weekend to see how busy it was, and both sides of the street were completely packed with parked cars stretching up past the pull-outs into rather sketchy parking spots in both directions.
Since I had a week day off, I ended up coming back, and while it was still fairly busy, there was parking, so I was able to stop and spend an hour or so taking photos. For what it’s worth, the picture above is ONLY the photographers taht went down onto the beach to take photos, there were about as many of us up on the road in the pull-outs as well. So yes, on a typical busy day here, the number of 500mm+ lenses will generally outnumber the eagles.
But that said… When I got there I did a quick count and found 15 Bald Eagles, plus half a dozen ravens, some crows, a few Glaucous-Winged gulls, and five Great Blue Herons — a slow day for Herons, I’ve seen 12+ here at times. The eagles are foraging for small fish stuck in pools by the low tide, for the most part, and occasionally arguing with each other.
In about an hour I took over 500 images. With some work, I culled that down to about 20. It wasn’t actually that productive a day; at negative tides, the distance to the water means the eagles are often quite far away, but with a good lens and a high megapixel camera body, you can fix a lot of that. I must say, also, just how much I have learned to appreciate Sony’s Autofocus. It’s ability to lock onto a flying bird sometimes feels magical.
There are times when shooting here almost feels like a cheat. But coming out here every so often is definitely good for the soul, and it’s nice to come back with some really nice images.
I do want to call out one specific bird I found:
For some reason — a funky molting pattern? — this eagle’s head is effectively bald. It seems quite healthy and acted normally, but once I started looking at the pictures back in the office, this really stood out to me as unusual. No idea why, but as you spend time watching and studying birds, you run into unusual things like this.
All in all, a fun hour or so out and about…
