Eagle Take-off

A solid overcast day, with raindrops starting to happen . . .

Canon 400D, Canon 100-400 IS, ISO 400, 400mm, 1/800 at f/10, Short farm, Center Valley near Chimacum, WA

There's a story that goes along with this that I thought worth sharing.

Roger Short is a farmer who puts between $15,000 and $20,000 a year into conservation, out of his own pocket, not often getting any recognition for the work he does for wildlife.

A lot of eagles visit the farm, particularly during the calving season. (Placentas are a particular treat for them.) When eagles use power poles for perches, they sometimes make a mistake and get electrocuted. For years, Roger has been trying to get the power company to make the poles safer, to no avail . . . until a couple of years ago when he became really frustrated and took a casualty to the local power company office and hand-delivered it to the front desk. Still no action.

A couple of weeks after that incident, it happened again, so he brought another one to the office.

Shortly thereafter, Potelco showed up at Roger's farm and installed extensions the tops of the poles, with T-bars like the one you see in the photo, the entire distance of the power line across the valley. Since they were installed, no eagles have died at the farm.

After this eagle had posed for me for awhile, it turned to the right and launched. You can see that his left foot is already nearly trimmed up for flight, while the left is still extended. The wings are nearing the bottom of the initial downstroke, with the left wingtip showing the flexibility of the primaries. (If you've ever had an eagle primary in your hand, you'll have an appreciation for how much power there is in those wings.)