The break between sports shooting this winter and wildlife shooting was very short this year, and I am way behind on my editing and blog posting.

I was out last week at my favorite GBH rookery hoping for some early season pics of the adults building nests, breeding, squabbling for preferred nesting sites and in general being the raucous birds that they are. It was a chilly, cloudy morning so I knew it would be a balancing act between shutter speed and ISO.
And then a guest showed up that I really didn’t expect, but they definitely brought some excitement and fear to the pond. Click on the images to enlarge

That is an Immature Bald Eagle in the GBH nest. The Eagle chased the GBH out of her nest without much of a fight, and proceeded to have eggs for breakfast! The Heron was not happy, but right now her options were very limited.

And when the Eagle got done there, he moved over to the next nest a short distance away and started to munch on another fresh egg. But this time he got a little more than he bargained for!

I wish that I could have this shot back, but it is what it is. In this nest, the Heron decided that enough was enough and she attacked the Eagle so fiercely that she made him retreat, and in doing so, he lost his grip on the egg he had planned to steal! You can see the egg yolk and egg white dripping from the broken shell in his talon. That would have been a killer shot…. woulda, coulda, shoulda….. but at least you can see the end result! I just wasn’t prepared enough for what happened. But I’ll get over it. That’s why God invented beer!!!!

He came around one more time but by then both parents were there and he didn’t stand much of a chance, so he retreated to a nearby tree and eventually left the area.

So that is my tale of a great experience for me. I had never witnessed anything like this before and it is one I won’t soon forget! Hope you enjoyed it too! Now get out and shoot!