I decided to take the Sony A7IV and the Sony 200-600 out for it’s first real world test today. While talking with the good people at Dodd Camera while buying my gear, I learned about a nesting pair of Bald Eagles at Carillon Park. About 3 months ago they gave birth to 2 eaglets. Since they are most active in the early morning hours, I got there a little before 8 (tried to get there earlier but people weren’t in the mood to drive this morning).
I didn’t really know where to go, so as I was getting close I kept my eyes in the sky looking for birds flying around. I knew their nest was in the Carillon Historic park, but they surely don’t just stay there all the time. As I got close to the park I saw people lining the street with cameras. I quickly turned around and parked. I got out of the car, saw a little white… something across the river. Zoomed in and there was an eagle. When I did this kind of photography back in New York I was hiking around parks. I’ve never been able to shoot birds like this from inside of my car. But, today I could have.
I sat with everyone as the bald eagle searched for food. The hunting strategy was not the typical strategy however. This eagle approached the water, and floated around as if it were a duck.
I later learned that there was a dead animal in the water. One of the other photographers said he saw bones and feathers over there. Not finding anything of great interest the eagle spread his massive wings flew around and returned to the bank
The eagle was greeted with a mischievous little red wing blackbird (and a lot of trash, PICK UP YOUR TRASH PEOPLE!!!)
After scaring the redwing blackbird away, the eagle decided it was time to hang out elsewhere. It spread its mighty wings and flew off.
Right as the adult bald eagle flew off into the distance the two juvenile eagles arrived. One of them was being harassed by the same little redwing blackbird.
As the two juveniles played together I saw a large object out of the corner of my eye. It was one of the adults. The huge raptor soared over my head across the street and landed in a tree.
After roosting in the tree for a while the eagle flew off. Because this is Dayton, the birds are named after the Wright Brothers, Orv (the male) and Willa (the female). I thought a fitting end to the day was the shot of the eagle in the distance with the Wright Brothers Aviation Center sign in the foreground
Overall I think the images came out pretty good. Looking back I might have been a little heavy handed with the editing. In the moment of shooting, I’ve forgotten a lot! On top of forgetting things, trying to pair that with learning a new system with so many different options and settings and custom settings has been extremely challenging. I missed a lot of shots, but overall I think today went really well. I look forward to going back frequently and improving my technique.
Beautiful presentation!