Eagles and Red-Tailed Hawk at the River

Submitted by Ric Rosow

On Wednesday the 19th of October I watched and photographed two eagles and a falcon over the course ninety minutes. At first there was an eagle (the first eagle) on a rock in the middle of the river and another eagle (the second eagle) in a tree at the side of the river. After a while the second eagle flew to the rock and literally chased the first eagle away. The first eagle flew to its nest, likely the nest of both eagles, on the other side of the river in the cottonwood tree below the back of the Metal-Matic building.

In this first photograph (above) the second eagle is jumping from the tree to the rock. I have purposely darkened the area around the eagle for you to see it more easily against the water. For a long time it was splashing around in the water hunting for fish. I have a number of photos of one or the other eagle going into the water for fish, but because of the distance between me and the eagle it is hard to see the details of any of the fish they caught.

While photographing the two eagles a red-tailed hawk flew into my line of view. The second photograph (above) is of the hawk. The hawk flew upriver close to the fence on the top of the bluff and then turned to go down river over the bluff. As the hawk flew by the second eagle on the tree limb, either the hawk or the eagle cried out a loud audible screech. I'm guessing it was a warning and not a casual hello.

On Thursday morning I spotted an eagle in a tree overlooking the Mississippi River. This time I went out down by the river to see if I could get a good image from ground level. Fortunately, the eagle was still in the tree, at least for the next 47 seconds. This is the first photo I took that morning. As I was taking a fourth shot, the eagle apparently did not like the sound of the shutter and initiated flight out of the tree. The last five images I took are of the eagle launching out of the tree. Of course, my camera shutter speed was set for a "still" bird, not one in flight.

You can see more of my work ricrosowphotography.com and Tres Leches Art Gallery. Art Attack is coming up on November 2-4 at the Northrup King Building. Stop in and see some fine art in the Tres Leches Art Gallery.