Intense Flight - Square Crop

by Mike Lee

Title

Intense Flight - Square Crop

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

I captured this image at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding California. Liberty (female) and Guardian (male) are a nesting pair of bald eagles that nest in a big tree on the river there. I’m not sure which bird this is but I saw it fly away from the nest on this January morning and I knew they were actively nest building. Therefore, I stood and waited for the bird to return, hoping to get a shot of it carrying some nesting material. The bird did not disappoint as it came back carrying a stick some time later. However, it dropped it before I could get a shot. What happened next was really wonderful to witness. The bird abruptly turned around rammed in to a dead pine branch in a tree not 30 feet from me, breaking a piece off with a very loud crack before resuming its journey back to the nest. Foliage obscured me from getting an image of the actual moment the majestic bird broke the branch off but I’ll never forget witnessing it and I like the intense look captured in this frame as the bird was midway through its u-turn and coming right toward me.

I also have this image available in a wider 16:9 crop elsewhere in my gallery.

Uploaded

November 19th, 2022

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