Distant Eagles At Blackwater NWR

We finally got a chance to go back to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland to see if we could find some Bald Eagles to photograph. It is about a 4 hour trip from where we live. After getting there we were surprised to see 2 Bald Eagles in a tree right after entering the Refuge. One was on one side and the other was on the other side of the same tree. But those will be in a different post. The images here were taken near the end of the 3.6 mile Wildlife Drive across the water near the exit. There usually are Bald Eagle and Osprey nests in the trees because they can fish right below. The only problem is it is pretty far from where we are on the Wildlife Drive.

View of the trees across from the Wildlife Drive. There are usually many nests in the trees here because the Eagles & Ospreys can fish close to their nests. 17 Vertical Images Panorama, Tamron 150-600mm @ 150mm
2 Bald Eagles in Tree across from Wildlife Drive Exit. Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm, Canon R
2 Bald Eagles in Tree across from Wildlife Drive Exit. Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm, Sigma 2X Teleconverter for 1200mm, Canon R

Bald Eagle Soaring In ColorFul Early Morning Sunrise @ Blackwater NWR

A series of images of a Bald Eagle soaring in the Blackwater NWR Early Morning Colorful Sunrise. Images taken with a 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkII.

Bald Eagle Soaring Early at Sunrise, Canon 400mm DO, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkII
Bald Eagle Soaring Early at Sunrise, Canon 400mm DO, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkII
Bald Eagle Soaring Early at Sunrise, Canon 400mm DO, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkII

More Bald Eagles In Flight From Blackwater NWR

A series of Bald Eagle in-flight images taken over a few visits to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. I find Blackwater NWR has one of the largest amount of Bald Eagles in the Northeast and is a fairly easy drive to get there from my home. The Featured Image was a quickly taken 2 shot panorama to get both wingtips in the image.

Bald Eagle in Flight, 400mm DO lens, Canon 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mk IV
Bald Eagle in Flight, 400mm DO lens, Canon 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mk IV
Bald Eagle in Flight, 400mm DO lens, Canon 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mk IV
Bald Eagle in Flight, 400mm DO lens, Canon 1D mk IV
Bald Eagle in Flight, 400mm DO lens, Canon 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mk IV

Blackwater NWR Bald Eagle

A series of images of two Bald Eagles taken at a previous trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge Maryland. The Featured Image was taken near the entrance to the Wildlife Drive. For the Featured Image I was using a Better Beamer Flash Extender to light the Eagle as it was very early in the morning and I did not have much light on my subject far away Eagle. I usually do not use Flash when photographing Wildlife but it was so far off I needed to throw some light on my distant subject that was in the shadows. Image taken with a Canon 1D mkIV, 400mm DO lens & a Better Beamer Flash Extender. Looking at my Raw Data, this Eagle was 115 feet away from me. I hardly ever use the Better Beamer Flash Extender for Wildlife but it just happened to be in the car from a Commercial Photo session.

Second Bald Eagle in a different tree from the First Bald Eagle.

The second Bald Eagle was only 65 ft. away from me and was more in the open so I did not need to use a flash to light the Eagle.

Bald Eagle Images From Blackwater NWR

One of my Favorite NWRs to photograph in is the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. Great variety of subjects from the Wildlife and Great Sunrises & Sunsets. You never know what you will see to photograph. Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge hosts the largest concentration of breeding Bald Eagles on the East Coast, north of Florida. Bald Eagles in the wild can live up to 30 years, but usually average 15 years. Following are a series of Bald Eagle images from various trips to photograph there.

Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 2X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
Immature Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
Immature Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 7D
Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, Canon 7D
Bald Eagle, Canon 400mm DO lens, 2X Teleconverter, Canon 1DmkIII

Bald Eagle In Tree Portrait

On a previous visit to the Blackwater NWR we saw this Bald Eagle in a tree at the entrance to the Refuge. I thought this was going to be a Great Day for photographing Bald Eagles. After I went through the Entrance Gate I pulled over to get out of the car to photograph the Eagle. The Featured Image was taken when I got a little closer and is cropped for an Eagle Portrait. I got quite a few images before I continued on the Wildlife Drive.

Bald Eagle in tree by Wildlife Drive Entrance before I moved even closer

Bald Eagle Flying Away at Sunrise

A series of images of a Bald Eagle flying away from me early in the morning after sunrise at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. All images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter with a Canon 1D mkIV Camera.

Bald Eagle Fly-By @ Blackwater NWR

A series of 3 images of a close Bald Eagle Fly-By taken at the Blackwater NWR in Maryland. I was using a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIV. I shot a series of images as it flew by me but I only used a few images here with the wings up. I seem to see more Bald Eagles at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge Maryland than any of the other National Wildlife Refuges near me. I also read somewhere that it has the largest population of Bald Eagles in the Northeast.

Bald Eagle Fly-By, 400mm f/4 DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV
Bald Eagle Winging Away, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens , 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV

Bald Eagles From Brigantine

We took a trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division to see what we could find to photograph. I was not sure of what we would find but it turned out to be a Great Photo visit. I was hoping for large groups of Snow Geese and we definitely found multiple groups of them around the Refuge. Most of the groups of Snow Geese were far out in the various pools, so for those images I shot a series of images for long panoramas of the large groups. One large group of Snow Geese far out in the water, shot with a 600mm lens, was a series of 64 images with a final image size of 507″ long. On the first area we were photographing in I was shooting some landscapes when Kathy pointed out 2 Bald Eagles in a distant tree. So it was going to be a Good Photo Day!

Pair of Bald Eagles, Canon R, 150-600mm lens @ 600mm

Bald Eagles On Branches At Blackwater NWR

A few more Bald Eagle images taken in December 2008 from the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. The Featured Image was taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a Canon 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 1DmkIV.

Bald Eagle, Blackwater NWR, 400mm DO lens, 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIII
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