East Van Visitor
A Visit to Pacific Northwest Raptors
Last weekend, my wife and I visited The Raptors for an all-day raptor experience. Located a short drive from Duncan on Vancouver Island and definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. We enjoyed it so much we brought our kids and their grandparents the very next day so they could experience it as well. Not only did we get to hold some awesome birds on our glove, we got to see the flying demo and participate in the Hawk Walk. Overall, a great time and highly recommended if you want to get up close to some birds of prey.
Plenty of photo opportunities as well, here are a few of my shots. All taken with my new combo of the Nikon Z7 and Nikkor Z 24-70 f/4 S.
Golden Eagle
Gyrfalcon, which was also in the flying demo. Very cool.
Great Horned Owl, possibly my favorite. During the flying demo he gets so close to the audience you can feel his wingtips on your head.
Bald Eagle. Just awesome to see such a beautiful bird up close.
Boomer, the entertaining Kookaburra
Spectacled Owl
Red Tailed Hawk coming in for a landing during the Hawk Walk.
American Kestrel
Squamish Bald Eagles (Again)
This was my third time in Squamish to shoot Bald Eagles, and it will likely become an annual excursion. Not only do I love Squamish and Brackendale, it is a great opportunity to practice wildlife photography with a photogenic subject. Unlike my previous trip to the area when I visited in January, this time I came when the eagle concentrations were much higher. There were several occasions when I saw up to eight eagles all trying to get one or two dead salmon, unsurprisingly some fights broke out.
As I was heading to a new location to begin my search for eagles, I saw an interesting log pincer thingy (correct name) and had to stop. I managed to get a shot with my wide angle that included the Stawamus Chief in the background.
(As always, click to view larger. You can also just scroll through all of the photos in a slideshow)
Getting to the beach at the south end of Squamish was more fun than expected due to deep snow. Once I arrived, there were no eagles to be seen but I did brave the elements to get this long exposure shot before I packed up and went searching for the elusive birds.
First stop was near the SPCA. Mount Garibaldi was looking majestic as usual so a quick shot was necessary.
I did find a single juvenile bald eagle
Pretty sure he saw me.
Also came across a Great Blue Heron
Plenty of crows, which I used to practice my focus tracking for flying birds.
A few shy ducks.
This is the reason the eagles are here in high concentrations, plenty of dead or dying salmon to eat. Other bird species also enjoy the annual feast.
Finally, in the most popular spot there were plenty of eagles. These were all found off Government Road near the Watershed Grill restaurant.
This one looking like he has found something interesting.
As I said previously, fights were not uncommon though rarely seemed to result in any real damage.
I shot a LOT of photos to only get a few worth keeping. Not an easy subject to photograph.
The seagulls don't stick around to ask questions when they see the eagles coming in.
Another fight sequence.
This guy wanted to make sure the young eagle knew who the boss was.
And a few more shots. It certainly won't be my last time visiting the area.
Squamish Bald Eagles
I was eager to try out my new Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 VR lens that I received for Christmas from my lovely wife. I knew that Bald Eagles were likely still in Squamish as I had been there previously. I ventured out one very old morning to see what I could capture.
The sun was rising as I pulled into Squamish and I noticed it was illuminating Mount Garibaldi. I decided to see how the lens performs for a long distance landscape shot. Nice detail despite the distance.
The rig
I then walked around one of my favorite spots in south Squamish and did encounter a few eagles.
One thing I realized is that I have a lot to learn about wildlife photography, especially birds. Learning how to use a telephoto lens has a fairly steep learning curve, and trying to capture birds in flight makes it even harder. I took a lot of shots but only have a few keepers and even those I'm only mildly satisfied with. Having said that, the combination certainly does help in comparison to shooting with my iPhone.
Eagle shot with iPhone
Same eagle with a Nikon D810 and Nikkor 200-500 f/5.6 VR lens. Anyone claiming "gear doesn't matter" hasn't tried to shoot wild eagles.
I relocated several times but had a hard time finding eagles. I found out later that there are much higher concentrations of eagles in early December and by January they have started to depart as most of the salmon that they are feeding on are gone. It was still a beautiful day so I made the most of it by shooting some landscape shots. Even some with my iPhone.
My trusty Tacoma, it never disappoints.
This was actually a hand-held shot with the Nikkor 200-500 lens. Shutter speed was relatively long but the VR system helped me get an acceptably sharp shot.
After more driving around and looking in a few spots I have never visited before I did find a few more eagles. Didn't get the focus or composition right in all of the photos, but I did get a lot of practice in tracking eagles in flight.
Finally, a comparison of iPhone vs Nikon. See that moon in the top right?
Now a little closer with the telephoto.
Birds At Acadia Beach in Vancouver, BC
Took a short walk with my dogs on Acadia Beach today. The best time for birds, especially Great Blue Herons, seems to be on the rising tide early in the morning. The Herons like to walk around in the shallow water and pick off smelt and other small fish who are too dumb to notice a three foot tall bird.
I didn't get any stellar shots today but did see a Bald Eagle, a few Great Blue Herons, Geese, and a few of the usual suspects as well. Overall, a fun day and always nice when an eagle is around. The birds were quite far away so these are crops from much bigger images shot with the Nikon D800 and 80-200 f/2.8D lens. In cases like this, a longer lens would sure be nice. If an updated 80-400mm VR becomes available I may be tempted to sell the current zoom and go for the bigger reach. Teleconverters do not work with the 80-200. There was also a strong backlight so I had to dial up the shadow recovery introducing some noise.
I definitely got some better shots when I went to Brackendale to shoot the Bald Eagles with a borrowed 400mm f/2.8.
Impressive talons on this guy, wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those.
The geese didn't seem to care that a top predator was in the area.
The heron also went about his business catching fish.
I even managed to catch a crow in flight.
The image above was rescued from a very underexposed shot. The screenshot below shows the impressive dynamic range of the Nikon D800 which allowed me to recover the shadows and save the image, if only for web use.
Bald Eagle Photography in Brackendale
I took a trip with my friend Andrew to Brackendale to find some Bald Eagles. The eagles were not hard to find, but certainly not easy to photograph. Most of the time they were quite far away, but occasionally they would fly by a little closer. The eagles gather here to eat Coho Salmon that have died after spawning. I guess eagles are lazy, and prefer to let dinner float by rather than waste energy catching it.
I borrowed a huge 400mm f/2.8 lens with a 2x teleconverter from my boss, which was a huge help and allowed to me to get some good shots. I wouldn't say any of the shots from the day were excellent, there was heavy cloud cover and relatively low light which meant a lot of the shots were at ISO 400 or even 800. Add to that slower shutter speeds, and a lot of the shots just didn't turn out very well. Considering this was my first time at this location, the first time shooting the 400mm, and the first time on a dedicated trip to shoot eagles I think I did ok.
Aside from the eagles, we were treated to a few nice views during the day. Both shot with the 400mm, the darker blue image is a 3-shot HDR.
These are some of my favorite shots from the day. First, a juvenile eagle was flying towards me and about to land in a tree. Of the 5 shots I got of him, this is the only one worth posting. (In case it's not obvious, you can click the photos to view the bigger version).
Another flight photo, this one I attempted to pan the 400mm to get some shots, most were blurry or had only a part of the eagle in the frame. This one turned out better than I thought it would.
Sometimes, eagles are not the graceful and majestic creatures we think they are. When you have to go you have to go.
Some shots of the equipment used.
The following photos are not great, but I thought I'd include them as they capture a flight sequence and my attempt at capturing the eagles in flight.
And more, not good due to slow shutter speeds, but capture a moment when an eagle swoops in to steal the salmon away from the others. Incoming!
And the rest of the images from the shoot worth posting. They include a Great Blue Heron, which often go ignored when the eagles are there but they are no less interesting nor any less beautiful.
Brackendale, Sneak Peek
I took a trip with my friend Andrew to Brackendale today to find some Bald Eagles. The eagles were not hard to find, but certainly not easy to photograph. Most of the time they were quite far away, and occasionally they would fly by a little closer. I borrowed a big 400mm f/2.8 lens from my boss, which was a huge help but a monster to try and pan as an eagles did a fly by. Too tired to process photos today, but here are two from the trip. More to come soon. another When we first showed up at the main viewing area, the eagles were far away but this fellow was close and didn't mind posing for a photo. It's a Great Blue Heron, you can see a past photo I took of a heron here.
I also managed to capture a couple of eagles in flight, this was one of the better shots. The lens really is huge, so this is no easy task.
Photo: Juvenile Bald Eagle In Brackendale, BC
Photo of a juvenile bald eagle taken in Brackendale, BC. There are a ton of bald eagles around in the winter months here, they eat the dying salmon who have finished spawning.