Golden Eagle captured by Z 9 / Z600f4 TC w/Z2x
It has been seventeen days since we discovered the dead deer buck basically outside our morning room window. My entire career I’ve wanted to stake out a carcass to see the process of it disappearing myself. It has been fascinating to see all the life nurished from this death. At this point, Jake says I should stop putting out bird seed and just bring in carcasses to The Ranch. The amount of activity, life that carcass has brought in has been fascinating to say the least. It has been so cool, Sharon who was not thrilled to have death right outside our window spends as much time as me watching the going ons (she stays inside to watch). The ermine is the really hard one to watch, it darts in so fast, grabs a bite and darts back out faster than I can call out, ermine! Well, I wrote about the temporary hide I had set up on the carcass and my photographing the Black-billed Magpies a week back. Well since then …
Golden Eagle captured by Z 9 / Z600f4 TC w/Z2x
a lone coyote has been making frequent visits to the carcass to feed. My looking at it, it didn’t seem to have any real pickings left, I was so wrong! I watched the coyote through night vision a few nights as it tugged and pulled carrying off seemingly big chunks of meat. The next morning the magpies would show up to the more opened up carcass to feed as did the Golden Eagle! We’d see the Golden Eagle on the carcass from our office. I first shot through the morning room window just to break the jinx but the images weren’t usable. Then I started to try to sneak out to get a shot. No matter the exit I would take, how long I would take to get in view, day after day the magpies would warn the eagle and poof … gone! As luck would have it, the eagle was in the tree you see here when Sharon went out with Maggie one time. Neither Sharon or Maggie saw it until Maggie went between the eagle and the carcass and the eagle dove on Maggie. Well this morning, I saw the eagle on the carcass and again, I tried to get out to photograph it. It took off but it didn’t go in the usual direction nor with the normal urgency. I put on my jacket and climbed into the permanent hide I have setup just hoping it would return. Within a few minutes the eagle came back! Two hours later with the fun meter pegging 3800, its crop was full and off it went. I was about forty yards away from it, shot with the Z2x the entire time. While the view in the tree and on the carcass had some vegetation blocking full view, I’m very happy and tickle pink to be photographing a Golden Eagle right out my door. The amazing thing, it returned three hours later and fed more! Wow!! I’m so glad I stuck with it, day 17 – Jackpot!