Eagles on the Winnebago River

Click for a larger image of the Eagle landing.

It was a cold January afternoon last Monday, +3 degrees F and a 20 MPH wind blowing. I sat in the car by the river with the window open, and my lens out the window,  watching two eagles come and go, perching in the same tree. They sat nearly motionless for many minutes at a time, only occasionally turning their head to gaze in to the river below or to keep an eye on the hundreds of Canada Geese and Mallards in a patch of open water. One Eagle would fly away, be gone for a while, then the other would leave, perhaps just taking a fly around and then returning to the same branch. I had hoped to get photos of them catching a fish in the river or feeding on the frozen half-eaten fish carcass that was laying on the ice below. No such luck. I waited for nearly three hours (did I mention that the window was open?) and my hands and feet were getting a bit numb. I did get a few photos of perching and flying, and even a yearling deer tiptoeing through the geese in the river to get to the other side, but not the photos I had hoped for. I thought several times that since nothing was happening I should leave, and the late afternoon sun was starting to cast long shadows. I was losing my light. Then as I watched, one Eagle leaned his (or her?) head forward, clearly focused on one spot in the river, and slightly lifted his tail feathers. I knew he was about to fly. I focused on the bird and started taking a burst of pictures as he left the branch and headed to the open water below. He stretched out his talons, spread his wings to control his descent just before he got to the water, and... splash! He apparently misjudged, because he crashed in to the water, nearly up to his neck. He flopped his now wet wings a couple of times and was able to hoist himself out of the water on to the nearby ice where he looked around over each shoulder as if to see if anyone was watching. He shook himself off and flew back up in to the tree to dry out his feathers in what was left of the afternoon sun. An exciting end to my afternoon Eagle watch.
(There are more Eagle photos here and here.)

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Click each to see a larger image.