The Birds at Conowingo Dam in March: Bald Eagles, Blue Herons, and Seagulls

I believe this is my third post about birdwatching and photography visits to the Conowingo Dam. Here are the previous posts:

• My first birdwatching visit to the Conowingo Dam (and my first steem-atlas post)
• Bald Eagles at the Conowingo Dam: A photo diary

The dam is located in Darlington, MD, about 12 miles south of the Pennsylvania border. As a resident of southern Pennsylvania, this makes it a convenient day trip for birdwatching and photography. You can visit SteemAtlas to see this location on the map. This is my third post about the site, but it was actually my fifth visit.

I learned about birdwatching at the dam early last year from the Conowingo Dam Eagles Facebook group. This ~40K member group is dedicated to Bald Eagle photography at the dam. If you want to see some seriously good Bald Eagle photography, go check out their page.

After learning about them, I naively thought that we could show up at any time and see Bald Eagles. As I learned in October, however, it's actually seasonal due to the species' migration habits. When the northern lakes freeze in the winter, the Bald Eagle migrates south because fish is a key portion of its diet. When the lakes melt, many of the eagles migrate north again. Some eagles remain in residence all year long, but most of them are transients. Here's what I wrote in my previous post:

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.

And that schedule explains the reason for our March visit to the dam. After this month, I suppose the eagles will be heading home until the fall.

This time, @primevaldad and his family joined us and so did @rpalmer13. So in addition to birdwatching, it was also a great family get together.

Trip roundup

First time on the fishing pier

All week long, the weather forecast for Saturday was iffish. Some days it was calling for rain, other days for sun. In the end, we didn't have either. Instead, we had a cold, dreary, overcast day. So, we were able to make the trip, but everything was grey and chilly when we got there at about 2:50 pm.

Aside from the weather, the first thing I noticed was that the fishing pier was almost empty. That had never been the case on my previous trips, so of course we had to try photography from there. While walking down to the pier, we saw birds in the trees out on Rowland Island. With unaided vision, they looked like vultures to me, and we didn't stop for photography.

Once on the pier, we began birdwatching and photography for about an hour, capturing photos of a few Bald Eagles in flight and roosting in trees on the far side of the river. Just to practice "bird in flight" photography, I also took some photos of gulls flying overhead. I think my best sequence from the day was probably an inflight series of a Great Blue Heron flying on the far side of the river that I captured from the pier. I turned it into a gif with flapping wings, but I don't think the motion will display here.

This is also where I captured the thumbnail picture up above. You can see water running over the dam in the background.

As I had been led to expect last November, the number of Eagles was substantially down from its November/December peak. In all, I suppose we saw about 5-15 of them. Although the eagles were present, the standout bird from this trip was definitely the Great Blue Heron. I'm not sure how many there were, but I'd guess maybe 50 or more.

Photography from the boat landing

When @primevaldad was walking in with his family, they saw the same birds in the trees on Rowland Island, but they took the time to look more closely and realized that they were all Great Blue Herons. So, at about 4:00, he suggested that we walk to the boat landing at the other end of the parking lot, across the river from the south end of the island. There wasn't much happening near the pier, so it was definitely a good suggestion.

At the south end of the island, we saw another Bald Eagle and a number of gulls. I even got a "fishing sequence" where one of the gulls dived into the water. As with the Great Blue Heron flight sequence, I made an animated gif, but I don't think the animation will display here.

The main attractions there were the Great Blue Herons, though. There were many of them already resting in the trees, and more arriving constantly. It turned out that we could just focus our cameras on the trees, and wait for a heron to fly into the camera to get a flight photo.

The photographs

At last, here is a selection of the photographs that we captured yesterday. I'm very much a novice at photography, so the quality may be limited, but hopefully not terrible. @cmp2020 and I were swapping cameras during the day, so any of the photos might have been taken by either of us. All photos may have been post-processed by Google Photos/Gemini for lighting and sharpness. All photos were taken by a Nikon P1000 (125x zoom) or a Nikon B500 (40x zoom).

Bald Eagles in a tree

When we first got there, there was an adult and a juvenile roosting in a tree on the far side of the river (⁹/₁₀ of a mile, according to one of the AIs). Later, there were two adults. It seems to be a popular resting spot.

Adult and Juvenile

Two adults

An Adult Bald Eagle on the electric tower on Rowland Island

An Adult Bald Eagle in flight across the river from the fishing pier

Another Eagle in flight

Adult Eagles perched on the far riverbank

I spent a lot of time trying to get this photo. Everyone else could see the bird, but I struggled to find it in the camera lens.

I'm pretty sure @cmp2020 took this one. It's a great shot of the far side of the river, considering it was taken with the Nikon B500's 40X zoom.

Blue Herons at the south end of Rowland Island

Two birds roosting

Incoming

I took many more photos, but that's enough for today. Despite the dreary background and the limited photography skills, I hope you enjoyed this photo-diary of American wildlife.

Wrapping up with dinner at the Tidewater Grille

We left the dam at about 4:40 pm and - as with previous trips - we went to The Tidewater Grille for dinner.

If you're ever looking for dinner near Havre Degrace, MD, I can say that I've enjoyed the experience during every one of my four visits there. Last night I had the Cream of Crab soup and the Broiled Seafood Platter which included salmon, scallops, shrimp, and crab cake.

Thank you for your attention!