Private Dining

I have a series of photos from an unexpected opportunity that I thought I would share. This is the first in a series and here is the background:

I had stopped by a small pond that had a number of land-locked salmon in it to see if the bald eagles had pulled a fish out (I had gotten a number of photos there a few days earlier).  There were a few eagles in the trees but no action in the pond so i was about to leave when I heard a sound deep in the underbrush behind the pond.  It was the sound of an eagle ripping and tearing a salmon carcass so I investigated and could barely see an eagle about 50 yards back in the thick brush.  There was no way I was going to get a shot but on a whim I decided to see if I could sneak through the brush and possibly find a hole to shoot through.  It was a slow, step-freeze, step-freeze process but eventually I was close enough to see the eagle and a magpie feeding on a salmon carcass. It heard me a few times but I was frozen when it looked so it would look for a few seconds and then go back to feeding.  At the point I took this photo I only had a little bit of brush between us and was mostly in full view.  I decided to start shooting because I didn't think there was any way I would get any closer.  In fact I had no idea I would be able to get this close and I had my new FE 70-200 f2.8GM lens with the 2X TC on the Sony a6300 which gives me 600mm equivalent (with the crop factor). The camera doesn't have a loud shutter but I was sure it would hear me and then see me but I took the chance and started shooting.  This was the shot I liked best of that bunch because the few branches in the way kind of conveyed the fact that it was a private affair that I was spying on.  They were so busy that even the magpie hadn't detected me!  More to come in my next few posts.

Sony a6300, FE 70-200 f2.8GM @ 176mm (264mm eq.), ISO-100, f/5.6, 1/400