Are the Bald Eagles nesting off 29 this year?

[jstpeter]

Does anyone know or have you seen them off 29 west of Llano? How far off the raod are they and what length lens do you need?

[J Eddington]

They are about 100 yards off the road and a 400 seemed short when we went last year.
Not a bad judge of distance, just a bad typist!

[Teddington]

My wife is a great photographer but a lousy judge of distance. The nest is a minimum of 100-120 YARDS from the viewing lot and it will take all the lens you can muster. The 400 was short even on a XTi 1.6 crop body. We're hoping to rent a 500MM and use a 1.4 TC this year. This is inside the federally mandated distance permitted only because the nest is near the road.

Google "Llano TX Eagles" and you'll get a number of hits. Cottonwood Photography "owns" the photo credits for this site and have already posted the new website for 2008-2009. Mom & Dad arrived in October and eggs looked to be hatching about Christmas according to the website. Eaglets should appear in a week or so after December 29th. I think the Cottonwood photos are taken with a Mk IIn using either a 500MM or 600MM plus either a 1.4 or 2.0 TC.

[brad]

Be VERY careful .. it is against federal law to disturb the nesting habits of any bird.

[huttophoto]

The eagles are definitely back
We did the Austin-to-Llano trip three times during the past two weeks (family events & feasts, woot!). Each time, at least one eagle was visible from Hwy29. And.. this was not during the peak morning/evening hours.
Of course, we only brought the p/s instead of the slr gear. sigh...

From prior experience - bring as much lens as possible. A few years ago, I gave it a try with my 10D w/300 + 2x. Even with the lens and teleconverter on a 1.6x factor body felt short at times.

Some random suggestions -
Tripod: Required. Work with medium to light tension so that you can follow the eagles in flight. If they're on the nest, tighten it up and use mirror lockup/remote, if available. Remember, the super telephoto ranges magnify any camera movement.
Oh, and if worse comes to worse, you can use one of the fence posts as a temporary tripod.
ISO: Work with the slowest ISO possible for the lighting/action. Given the distance to the nest versus the maximum lens you have available means that it's likely that you'll have some significant post-production cropping.
Exposure: You have to be careful about the exposure. Unless you're really tight on the nest/bird, the meter is mainly going to be reading the sky (and the eagles will end up silhouettes). It's a great time to practice manual metering.
Timing: In the early morning and evening hours, the eagles are more active out of the nest. If they are staying in the nest, it's even tough to spot the top of their head. If you have some time to kill, drop by Llano, have some BBQ, take some shots of downtown, wander along the river, look for landscapes, details, etc. Don't have a set plan except for an open schedule. Have some fun.

Good Luck!

[iCe]

Originally Posted by brad

Be VERY careful .. it is against federal law to disturb the nesting habits of any bird.

Can't disturb them if they don't cross the fence (which would be trespassing and double trouble). The nest is waaaay out there. Like others have said, !00+ yards... I stopped in once during the middle of the day and nobody was home. I don't have a link but there's a guy that shoots them almost every day and his site had some fairly recent shots on it.

[brad]

Cool .. and apparently I was really tired when I typed that... what I meant to say was that its against federal law to disturb the nesting habits of any migratory bird .. and I believe Bald Eagles qualify. They may also have other specific protections, but I'm not sure of that since they aren't on the endangered species list anymore.

And cool that they're already pretty safe from too many careless lookie loos. :)

[iCe]

Originally Posted by brad

Cool .. and apparently I was really tired when I typed that... what I meant to say was that its against federal law to disturb the nesting habits of any migratory bird .. and I believe Bald Eagles qualify. They may also have other specific protections, but I'm not sure of that since they aren't on the endangered species list anymore.

And cool that they're already pretty safe from too many careless lookie loos. :)

Yep. I think that subject has come up at Bosque a time or two. I also think that the geese exact their revenge when they blast off directly toward the photographers

I wasn't able to catch them on or even near the nest when I was there but I can tell you that judging from the view of the nest through the lens, even with a 600mm lens, 1.4x TC, and 1.6 body, at least moderate cropping will be required to get a decent image. They are out there

[jonnydonut]

400, 2.8L + 1.4extender



think I might have cropped this one a tad.
they'll perch closer than the nest. that was the case here, but not that much closer. take the longest lens you can. even if you get a really low f-stop.

[jstpeter]

Glad I checked here first. My aresenal won't quite make it :) Would love to see any photos you all have of Texas Bald Eagles

[iCe]

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Glad I checked here first. My aresenal won't quite make it :) Would love to see any photos you all have of Texas Bald Eagles

I was just there a few days ago. I went during the afternoon so the light was horrible. I put a few images up HERE

[gsdpic]

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Glad I checked here first. My aresenal won't quite make it :) Would love to see any photos you all have of Texas Bald Eagles

There are some shots I took in prior years here and here and here. Those were all taken with a 1.6x crop body, sigma 100-300 zoom at 300mm + 2.x teleconverter. The pictures themselves were not further cropped.

The Cottonwood Photography web site mentioned earlier is a great site to keep track of what is going on at the nest. I don't get out there often, and not yet this year, but from my experience the most interesting time is when the eaglets are just starting to think about flying. They'll flap their wings and jump and hover a few feet above the nest for a few seconds.