Giving me the bird

I spent some time chatting with volunteers at the Caballo Lake State Park while I was there.  Among other nuggets of information, such as where prospectors nearby were currently finding gold, they told me about a bald eagle that was frequenting the part of the Park below the dam.  Apparently, most mid-days would find a bald eagle hanging about.  Sometimes it would be in a dead tree near the entrance to the camping area.  Sometimes, it would be on a bluff across the Rio Grande.

I eagerly set off with camera gear.  On my first trip, high on the bluff I saw a large bird, clearly NOT a bald eagle.  I took a few hand-held shots which, because of the distance and hand holding, were fuzzy.  They were clear enough, however, to let me identify the bird as a large red tailed hawk.

The next day, I saw a bald eagle up on the bluff, about 600 feet away (per Google Earth).  I set up my tripod and put on the big lens.  With full magnification, I still needed to crop the shot and it was a bit fuzzy, but was worth keeping.  From my vantage point, he was silhouetted against the sky.

I took the shot, then moved downstream and closer, until I was about 400 feet away, as close as I could get.  From this point, he was no longer silhouetted against the sky.  He had the bluff behind him.  The white-painted rock to the right and below him suggests that this is a favored roost for him.  Another shot, and I sat and watched him for about 20 minutes, until he took off and flew west until he was out of sight.

Although I went back several times a day thereafter, armed with two tripods and both still and video cameras, I did not see him again.  Maybe next winter...