The Eagles at Brick Reservoir

Veronica and I are very fortunate in that our back yard borders on the Brick Reservoir in Brick, New Jersey. I plan on doing another blog story about the reservoir and many of its inhabitants / visitors. This past Saturday night, we had a light coating of snow and on Sunday morning, the reservoir did not open at its usual time of 6:30 a.m. The employees make sure that the path around the reservoir and the parking lots and walks are all clear of snow and ice before allowing people in. The wind was blowing hard and I decided to go into the back yard and fill up the bird feeders. Like many things in life, timing is everything. I happened to look over the chain link fence at the reservoir and was I surprised.

 

An American bald eagle was cruising around the reservoir and I was really excited. I ran into the house to get my camera and told Veronica to grab the binoculars so that she could see the magnificent bird.

I grabbed my Nikon D300 with a 70-200VR f2.8 lens and rushed into the back yard. I saw the eagle across the reservoir and it was just flying around. I waited and waited and nothing happened. All of a sudden, all the seagulls that were at the reservoir took to the air and started squawking.

I saw that they started chasing the eagle and it was flying in my direction. I had checked all my camera settings and was as prepared as I could be. I am so glad that I took the time to check everything because it could have been a disaster.

When I first got outside with the camera, I held it up to check the shutter speed and lens opening. I squeezed off a photo to see how the exposure would be and I realized that I had not put a memory card in the camera. I had taken it to download photos the day before and forgot to return. I ran to one of the windows and asked Veronica to hand to me. Boy, would I have been mad to have this opportunity and miss it because I forgot to load the memory card.

These photos were taken when the eagle made one pass in front of me. I had once chance and I just started shooting. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. We don’t see eagles often at the reservoir. A few years ago, I photographed an immature bald eagle sitting on a communications tower on the reservoir property and in the beginning of January photographed an adult eagle (probably this same one) on the ice near the center of the reservoir. I was using a 200mm lens for that it was definitely not long enough but I was able to salvage a picture that prints pretty well to about 8 x 10. The day that I saw the eagle on the ice, I was walking around the reservoir (without a camera) and saw the eagle sitting in a tree about forty feet from me. I stopped and looked at him but he didn’t move. I went home to get my camera and he was in the middle of the reservoir on the ice.

This eagle has bands on both of its legs so it may be one of the residents at Manasquan Reservoir where they have a breeding pair of eagles.

I took some long shots and then saw him take off towards where I live. I started walking that way when someone told me that the eagle had landed in a tree next to my yard. I almost got there (running with a camera and tripod) and the eagle flew away and landed on a tree in my back yard. I almost got to him there when he took off again for good. I was so disappointed. These shots really made up for it.

For some people, eagle photos may be more commonplace than they are for me. It was just so exciting to see this magnificent bird and to know that it was at the reservoir really makes me happy.

This is the immature bald eagle. I photographed this one on May 27, 2007. For all of us that visit the Brick Reservoir, we can be proud of all the wildlife that we encounter.

© 2009, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.