Golden eagle and a couple of buzzards

Tobers

Tobers

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Andy
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Following my green woodpecker triumph from a few weeks back, here's a golden eagle.

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I'd like to have had a more interesting or just not totally white sky, but you've got to do the best with what you're given. In my case I happened to have my 400 2.8 and 1.4x attached (unwieldy for wildlife watching is an understatement, and it scared pretty much everything away), as I was trying to photograph a distant sea eagle. Lo and behold I turn back to check where my pal Mark is, and this golden eagle flies straight overhead, flapping lazily like they do.

I was on a wildlife tour of Mull with this chap, who certainly knew his stuff. It was more a way to see the island with a view to getting some good landscape photography locations than anything else, as I'm not that much into bird watching at all. He managed to put us on good terms with a whole bunch of beasties including otters, deer, seals etc. In fact, he was good enough to compile a list which I've put at the end of this post. I was particularly pleased with the dipper, which I spotted, but again the darned thing flew off when I swung the 400mm into view.

We saw a couple of buzzards as well. The first was just too silhouetted, so I made it into a silhouette which I quite like. The other (at least I think it's a buzzard) was a few days later with a 70-200 2.8 and was partially obscured but made a decent context shot.

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Overall, a top trip, with some excellent landscape locations which I'm just starting to edit my way through now. If you're into bird watching, I'm guessing Mull is an excellent location. Here's that list...

Great black backed Gull
Herring Gull
Common Gull
Black headed Gull
Grey Heron
Hooded Crow
Oystercatcher
White tailed Sea Eagle (5)
Golden Eagle
Wigeon
Red breasted Merganser
Greylag Geese
Raven
Goldeneye
Mute Swan
Little Grebe
Buzzard
Shelduck
Great northern Diver
Mallard
Teal
Curlew
Blue Tit
Coal tit
Dipper
Cormorant
Shag
Woodpigeon
Chaffinch
Blackbird

Other species seen

Otters (2)
Red Deer
Fallow Deer
Common Seal
 
Buzzard silhouette looks good! both balance nicely - bird and composition (y)
Did you shoot the Eagle in RAW? Maybe try shadow recovery to reduce silhouette effect (or has this already been done?)

You could also try making the sky blue to lessen he silhouette effect, if you're into post-capture work.

Geoff
 
geoff-d said:
Buzzard silhouette looks good! both balance nicely - bird and composition (y)
Did you shoot the Eagle in RAW? Maybe try shadow recovery to reduce silhouette effect (or has this already been done?)

You could also try making the sky blue to lessen he silhouette effect, if you're into post-capture work.

Geoff
Click to expand...

Hi Geoff - thanks for that. Yes the eagle was in raw, and I've already done quite a bit of exposure work on it. It isn't the best eagle shot by a large margin - I was just very happy to get it. I might have a look at colour replacement for the sky too.

Worryingly, I really enjoyed seeking out these big birds, and worryingly I was looking at hide locations in Mull whilst I was up there. I think I now understand a bit more about what is involved in getting that awesome shot of a sea eagle catching a fish in flight - lots and lots of time & patience.
 
Nice capture, but on both this and the buzzard there is some nasty red-cyan CA. That'll clear up nicely in Lightroom (and other RAW software, I'm sure). Sorry for bringing up a negative point, but once you get used to seeing it (I look for it in my shots to correct it since it can be cleaned up so effectively) you'll see it wherever it's present and it's quite distracting!
 
Hi Tobers - Ian C is absolutely correct your bird is a young (probably 2nd year) White-tailed Sea Eagle. The proverbial 'Flying Barn Door'. Did your guide see this photo, or worse still see the bird and tell you it was Goldie? If so thats worrying!
Ians Sea Eagle photo is of an adult so plumage wise (colouration) your bird might look more like a Goldie but on size and shape (jizz) its clearly a young Sea Eagle. Well done though looks like you were real close!
 
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