Eagle spotting

Not this weekend, but the weekend before, the rain and clouds and chilly temperatures took a break and gave us a Saturday full of sunshine and lets-go-outside and I'm-happy-just-because-I-see-sun!

Around noon, I got a call from my dad to look around our area for an eagle because he had seen one and its young (two he thinks!) flying around.

 We spotted them. . .and it was a perfect opportunity to try out my new camera and zoom lens. Because of the sunshine, I made my way over to his house, which was farther away from where I saw them perched, but not in the direct view of the light. Not bad for an amateur! Above is the eagle--this was taken about 2-3 houses away.

 Here is the young--photo taken about 2 houses/yards away.

Here the bird is in the bottom right corner. Oops!
While watching, these birds took to flight, chasing prey and chasing pesky crows! It was amazing to see! It was almost as if the "mom" was teaching her young to hunt. We never saw anything captured, but the hunt alone was just fine with me! No pictures of birds in flight--not there yet! I was happy I was able to focus and create the pictures I did!

An interesting aside. . .one of the members of the leadership team at our school was referring to "The Book of Awesome" by Neil Pasricha and the 1000 Awesome Things blog, and then talked about a few personal "awesomes." He talked about seeing a large eagle in the area, which isn't so common, and that he spent some time looking instead of carrying on with his usual Saturday routine. I just wanted to jump up and tell him about the rest of the awesome that he missed--all these pictures came from it! It was amazing to see their heads shift, them wiggle as if ready to take off, and the sudden, silent jump into flight. The return to a perch and his gaze. And me chasing, to,--figuring where I could next see him best! I guess I just have to be happy that God let me in on a little extra bit of His  awesome!

(Oops--the focus is a little low and close. It was my first attempt!

This one was taken from my dad's deck, so the bird was about 3 houses/yards away.)