Yesterday at Cootes Paradise in Burlington

[byrons]

Yesterday was a gorgeous morning for birding, so we decided to go down to Cootes paradise in Burlington to check in on the nesting Bald Eagles.  One adult was perched in a distant tree guarding the nest, and you can now definitely see some activity in the next.  It's a long way off, so definitely bring spotting scopes and long lenses.  

In addition, here are a few of the other birds we spotted over the morning:  

Red-Tailed Hawk


Red Tailed Hawk by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

Red-Bellied Woodpecker (female)


Female Red-bellied woodpecker by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


Female Red-bellied Woodpecker by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

Greater Yellowlegs (I'd welcome a correction if I have this wrong.  I'm not very good with waders and the sun was making viewing difficult)


Greater Yellowlegs by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

Lots of white-breasted nuthatches


White breasted Nuthatch by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


White Breasted Nuthatch by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

Mute Swans ... this one decided to take off, only to abort


Mute swan taking off by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


mute swan, putting the brakes on by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


Mute swan, abored takeoff by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


mute swan, settling back down by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

And of course, the object of the exercise:


Bald Eagle by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


Bald Eagle by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr


Bald Eagle by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

[pinkster2008]

Thank you for sharing these pictures. I like the pictures of the Bald Eagle, how far were you away from the Bald Eagles when you took these pictures ?

Thanks

[byrons]

It was quite far away, and the eagle pics are  cropped quite severely.  I'd say it was probably 500 feet away.  I'll post a picture of the perched eagle and the nest.  The best viewing site is from the Marsh boardwalk, but it is still a 1000 feet from the nest but with a pretty clean line of site.  The best pics would likely need to be digiscoped.  Some people are using astronomical telescopes to get pictures.  The other issue is that there is no solid ground from which to shoot.  You are on a floating boardwalk and getting a steady shot is a bit tricky.  Don't go on a weekend when there are lots of people.  I went Easter weekend and it was impossible to get any sort of steady (or even somewhat steady) shot because of all the people on the boardwalk.  Yesterday there was only one other person there, so it was very nice.  

So here is the perched eagle cropped slightly


Bald Eagle by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

Here is cropped quite a bit more


Bald eagle by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

And here is a view of the nest:


Eagle Nest by ByronSheldrick, on Flickr

If you go on the RBC's website, they have a good write up about taking pictures of the eagles, including some nice photos of a 2850 mm astronomical telescope they've rigged up to a camera.

http://www.rbg.ca/baldeagles

I was using a Sigma 150-500 mm lens, so people with a better lens will get comparably better results.  

Byron