Bald Eagles at the Conowingo Dam: A photo diary

In early October, I posted about our first birdwatching trip to the Conowingo Dam. As you may recall, the trip had actually happened in June, after I learned about this activity from the Conowingo Dam Eagles Facebook page. (If you want to see some amazing Bald Eagle photos, go visit that page! In my uninformed opinion, some of the participants there are probably world class photographers.)

In June, it was a spur of the moment trip, since we had driven in that general direction, anyway. The goal was simply to learn where to park and where to view the birds. Mission Accomplished. During that trip, we learned that the Bald Eagles are migratory birds, and they will be most prevalent at the dam between November and March. Later, I saw another report that the small peak window inside that large peak window is probably the last week of November and the first week of December.

So, it's not quite the end of November, but it's getting close. @lisa.palmer, @cmp2020, and I planned a second trip for Nov. 21. During the first trip, my 40X zoom camera had proved insufficient for the distances, so I purchased a low-budget upgrade, which is a second-hand Nikon Coolpix P1000 that is capable of zooming out to 125x.

If you go to the dam, you'll see people with photography equipment that's almost certainly worth 10s of thousands of dollars, but I can't justify that sort of expense. The P1000 cost about $900 (13,000 STEEM). I only expect to use the camera a few times per year, so I really couldn't justify a higher expense. Also, all I know about photography is "point" and "click", so I would have difficulty making use of the more advanced features, anyway.

The leadup

In recent weeks, the Conowingo Eagles FB group has been heating up with activity, so I was confident that we could plan on seeing an eagle or two (or twenty) at the present time, and I was scheduled to be off from work on Friday, so that was our date (weather permitting). We left at 2 in the afternoon, and the trip took about an hour. This left about 1¹/₂ to 2 hours for birdwatching and photography before sundown. We brought my old camera - the Nikon Coolpix B500, the new P1000, and a pair of binoculars. The photos below are all by me with the P1000, but @cmp2020 managed to get some decent photos with the B500, too... maybe he'll post, too.

According to Brave Leo, the river is about ⁹/₁₀ of a mile wide at the dam (1.4 km), and much of the activity happens on the far side of the river, so vision augmentation is a necessity for a clear view of the birds, even for non-photographers. We also brought some tripods, but didn't wind up using them.

Goals for the day were: (i.) see a Bald Eagle (none of us had seen one in the wild before); and (ii.) get at least one decent photograph.

Photographing the Eagles

Fortunately, my impression from the Facebook group was accurate, and there were plenty of Eagles to be seen - if not much feeding activity. We stayed taking photographs from 3pm to about 5pm, and I did manage to get some decent photographs, although I wouldn't say that any were excellent. Even with 125x zoom, the camera still struggles with the distance - at least in my hands. If you add in my poor photography skills, even the decent photos lacked something in terms of sharpness and lighting. It gives me even more appreciation for the quality of the photographs that I see in the FB page.

That said, Google Gemini was able to help me with some of the lighting and sharpness challenges, and after a bit of postprocessing, I got a number of photos that I think are worth sharing in a blog post, so here are some of them:

A juvenile Bald Eagle on a utility tower on Rowland Island

Side note: Family tradition has it that my Great-great-Uncle "Slim" was the person who inspired the Henry Fonda character of the same name in the movie, Slim. He worked as a lineman when the East Coast of the US was first running the interstate power lines in the early 20th century. I can't help but wonder if he had a hand in setting up those towers.

Here are the towers at a distance

Two adults with one just-launched into flight

Two adults and a juvenile perched on rocks

A Gull on the Hunt

• No Eagle here, but if you look carefully, you can see some sort of fish above the surface of the water. Maybe the gull dropped the fish, or maybe it jumped out of the water to escape...
• Google Gemini says the bird is a Ring-Billed Gull with winter plumage.

More Gulls on the Hunt - with the dam in the background

The Overall Scene

• This gives a sense of the overall distance to the rocks where those birds are sitting.

• And this gives a sense of how busy the gulls were.

Two Adult Eagles Landing on Rocks with a Juvenile in the Background

Before Touch-down

After Touch-down

A Lucky "Eagle in Flight" Photo on Our Side of the River

Two Adults Perched in a Tree Beside the Parking Lot - bedding down for the night?

Homeward Bound

As with our previous visit, we had dinner at the nearby Tidewater Grille before heading home.

Food and atmosphere were both pleasant, with live music played at a reasonable volume, and not much of a crowd. And this time I remember what we ate. All three of us had the Cream of Crab soup as an appetizer - Maryland is famous for its crab dishes. For our main course, @lisa.palmer had the Shrimp and Scallop Savory (shrimp, scallops, mushrooms, and linguine), I had Pork Marbella, and @cmp2020 had a hamburger.

Since we went a little bit out of our way for dinner, the drive home took about 75 minutes, and I guess we arrived home again around 8:30 pm. Overall, it was a nice little day trip.