Eagle Spotting.

I apologize for the wordy post. But words are necessary to give meaning to this moment...

At Hall's Lake in Newbury, Vermont, on the 28th of May 2011around 4:00 pm a large bird of prey was spotted by my family as we sat on the sand. It swoop down over the water and flew to a near by pine tree. It was brown and white. And ginormous. I used to be really into birds of prey and I knew it wasn't a hawk. Knew it wasn't an osprey. Way too big to be a falcon. I thought I knew what it was, but I almost couldn't believe it. Was it really...?

For a couple minutes my family argued about what it was. Then I realized its white head was still visible up in the tree. Upon using my zoom lens my suspicions were confirmed. It was, in fact, a BALD EAGLE. 

Never before have I seen on wild. One has also never been spotted on that lake, and very few in Vermont all together. Amazingly rare.

The shots aren't the best, as my telephoto lens was far too small (135mm), but when the shots are blown up in photoshop there is no arguing that what we saw was a bald eagle. So. Beautiful. It absolutely made my day. Possibly my week.

I apologize for the noisy photos. But seeing as I will never again see a bald eagle in the wild I am not going to hesitate in posting these, though they be less than my best work.

Later I was able to get pictures of it soaring over the lake, as some smaller birds tried to chase it away to protect their young.

It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Here's to wild birds of prey and ALWAYS having your camera with you!