Lock & Dam #14

All posts tagged Lock & Dam #14

Saturday ~ January 20, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 20, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Saturday!

I finally made it to LeClaire yesterday and went to Lock & Dam #14 to see if I could get some eagle images.  The parking lot had several cars in it and there were about 10 – 15 photographers on the observation deck so I knew it wasn’t going to be a banner day for sure.  I have three images for you today.

Only two eagles flew over the water close enough to photograph.  I have hundreds of images like this one but I can never pass up an opportunity to photograph this magnificent bird.

The only excitement was when this large pelican came by the platform very close and landed a few hundred feet from the lock.  He then just drifted past us as he floated back to the lock.  We were all so hungry for something to photograph that all cameras were pointed at him and the sound of shutters clicking was in the air.  🙂

I saw something yesterday I had never seen before at the platform.  There were tons of fish floating on the surface moving past the platform.  Fish of all sizes.  Some seemed dead but some of the larger fish were moving (like they were stunned) and I saw several swim to deeper water.  It would have been a smorgasbord for the eagles but only two came by and neither of them seemed interested the buffet.

I had one image that, while I was trying to follow the second eagle and got ahead of him and the lens focused on the trees across the river.  I didn’t notice it until I was going through my images.  Those trees were full of eagles, at least a hundred of them. 🙂

If I had of known that I would have crossed the river and tried to find that location.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ February 08, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 8, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Wednesday!

I have three images for you today and while they are not images of eagles they are big birds that fly and are fun to watch.  There always seems to be a lot of pelicans at LD #14.  There was only one when I first arrived and he would start by the lock door and float / swim up past the observation platform and then turn around and go back.

More pelicans came as time wore on and soon there were a half-dozen all fishing in the calm water.

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Every once in a while I would notice one of their heads go underwater and he would come up with a fish in his mouth, which quickly disappeared down his throat.  I was never fast enough to capture that moment even though I followed one with my lens for several minutes.

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Two of them came in about the same time and did a simultaneous landing.  Like two jets landing on the same runway.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ February 09, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 9, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

February-09-2016-01-29-16

Happy Tuesday!

I didn’t get any photography in this weekend.  Never really seemed that busy but just didn’t get around to it.  The weather wasn’t all that great and on the one day we had sunshine I was a little under the weather.  So I’ll show you some behind the scenes, as it were, of the shooting at Lock & Dam # 14.

I believe these guys are Common Mergansers.  I may be wrong so feel free to correct me if I am.  When the action is slow you either photograph things in front of you or you visit with those around you.  I did a lot of both.  I have a lot of shots of these guys, some geese, and some ducks.  The ducks were really too far away to photograph.  I will also practice panning on the ubiquitous gulls flying by.

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I got this guy on the way down but couldn’t keep up with him when he snatched the fish.

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The result is he has a nice lunch and a bunch of photographers had some nice images on their memory cards.

That’s it for today.   Remember you can click on the image to enlarge if.

Thank you for all the wonderful Birthday greetings and sentiments yesterday.  Really makes me feel good.  Thank you.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ February 06, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 6, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

February-06-2016-01-31-16

Happy Saturday!

I was able to get through some more of my eagle images from a week ago yesterday and came across this one.  It was near the end of the day as you can see from the softer yellow light on his wings.  This is a young adult.  He still has a lot of white to fill in yet but the look of his eyes tells me that he is focused on finding food.  (click on the image to make it larger.)

I wasn’t able to go to Lock and Dam 14 yesterday because I had to get a haircut, had a doctor appointment, and a variety of other “honey do” errands to take care of.  Later in the afternoon I did get out with camera in hand but didn’t find much.  I found a cardinal but I only had the Nikon 80 – 400 mm lens and he was far enough away that I couldn’t get a good clean shot of him.  Still it was a cardinal and I might show him later.  I photographed some barns as well but I can’t seem to quit coming back to the eagle images.

I’ve just about reached the end of them and have only culled about 175.  So that still leaves me with about 1,500 keepers.  Don’t worry I won’t show them all.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ February 03, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 3, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Wednesday!

Some more eagle images for you today.  I want to show you some of my mistakes and what can happen when you get busy visiting with other photographers and not paying attention.  🙂

I was watching some geese fly over the area and happened to notice all the lenses pointing over my head.  I had the lens set on 400 mm and this is what I got.  Not a very good composure but on the other hand you could call it up close and personal. 🙂

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For this image I was busy visiting with my friend Burt and totally missed the catch of this juvenile.  He does have a fish in his talons and you can still see the spray of the water.  All I got was three frames of river water before I finally caught up to him.

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This guy pivoted and was headed for a catch.  I did a good job of following him down until all I could see in my view finder was brown blur.  There were photographers leaning over the railing and I was getting the back of their insulated jackets.  So I missed his catch as well.

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Here is another miss.  I caught up with him just after he had snagged his lunch.  Probably visiting again.  🙂

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There weren’t many juveniles at the lock when I was there.  A couple flew over and I captured this image.  For the most part the adults were having the most success on this day.

That’s it for today.  I have lots more eagle images but I’ll give them a rest for a few days and see if I can find something else of interest.  Truth be told however I could photograph eagles every day and I don’t think I would get tired of them.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Saturday ~ January 30, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 30, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

January-29-2016

Happy Saturday!

If you have read the last few posts about my photography experience at Lock and Dam #14 in LeClaire, Iowa then you know that I have lamented about the lousy shooting conditions (weather wise) the two days I was there.  Well yesterday was like a day in paradise.  The sun was out, the temperature wasn’t bitterly cold and the eagles were flying.

There were a lot of photographers there and even a couple of buses came in after I was there but I found a spot on the observation deck that although not perfect for the angle of the sun was pretty close to perfect.  I was supposed to meet my friend Andreas at the dam but his work prevented him from coming as I leaned from his text while standing on the lock walkway.  I know he was disappointed.

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I did run into my friend Burt Gearhart and had a nice visit with him.  He is very helpful and shares a lot of his knowledge about the lock and dam and photographing eagles.  Google his name and you’ll see a lot of great eagle images.

Other than the time that I had the up close and personal experience with the eagle on the highway a couple of years ago (Click Here To View) I have never been so close to eagles and certainly not while they were flying.  There were times it felt like I could reach up and touch them.  More than once I took my eye out of the camera just to appreciate the beauty of them flying (more like floating) overhead.

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Trying to follow this eagle from attack approach to capture of the fish proved to be a challenge for me.  I was a little slow and low on this shot but wanted to show it because I wanted to show the moment of capture.  🙂

So I took 1,606 images and as I write the blog this morning I have not yet been through them all.  Just too many to evaluate and it was busy when I got home so by the time I got the images loaded on my computer it was just too late to look through them.  The images I’m showing today were the first ones out of the camera.

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With the fish securely in his talons he is off to the feeding trees to eat his catch.  There were a lot of fish in the water at one time over 5 fish floating and several eagles in the trees but they didn’t seem all that interested.  More about the floating fish in a later post.

You can probably imagine that with that many images you’re probably going to see a lot of eagle images on this blog for a while.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Remember you can click on the images to make them larger.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

Monday ~ January 25, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 25, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday!

The last of the eagle images for you today from my Friday shoot.  As I said in earlier posts pickings were pretty slim with only three eagles in the area.

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This little guy flew by my lens so I ripped off some images of him.  This is the only one I caught the entire bird.  Sorry I don’t know the name of this species.

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The last image I took was of this eagle sitting in what is called “The feeding trees.”   For some reason you can get up close and personal with them and they won’t fly away.  Things were so desperate on Friday that three of us were photographing this guy at the same time.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Weather doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a good photography day so I probably will just take some more lessons.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ January 23, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 23, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

January-22-2016-A

Happy Saturday!

Yesterday I had to go to the Quad Cities to get the battery replaced in my aging Mac Book Pro.  It was a 15 minute process (they had ordered the battery last Friday) so I waited for them to finish.  I was optimistic about the weather because the sun looked like it was going to burn through the clouds and give us some sunshine on the way down.

I was wrong.  The conditions were as bad if not worse this Friday at Lock & Dam #14 than they were last Friday.   Along with the cloudy gray sky, cold temperature, and wind there were less eagles.  I only saw, at any one time, 3 eagles and some of them were just passing through too far away to photograph.

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I almost missed this image and probably the only reason it is in focus is that the eagle is still close to the water because he is out of my focus ring for sure.  I was busy visiting with a guy I met on the walkway and all of a sudden he snapped his camera to his eye because this guy was going after a fish.  By the time I got my camera on him he had already caught the fish and was starting his climb.

I met a lot of interesting people at the dam yesterday.  Very friendly and all had different stories about their photography.  Many were retired, some had just gotten into photography and one guy I talked to only lives 10 minutes from the dam so he comes every day.  He only took one image the entire time he was there.  I asked him about that and he said he had hundreds of images of eagles doing everything so why duplicate them.  He looks for the catch only.  🙂

I also met two gentlemen who were from Michigan.  They drove all the way just to photograph at the dam.  One of them had been there before but for his buddy it was a new experience.  It was a blast talking with other people about photography, gear, technique.  Things that make normal people’s eyes glass over.  🙂

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The eagle action was pretty slow so when Mr. Pelican floated by so close I felt like I could touch him I had to take this image.

I spent a total of 5 hours at the dam and came away with very few shots.  Three eagles sitting in trees and occasionally flying over the water with gray skies in the background does not make for superior wildlife shots.  Having said that I take what I can get.  I shot about 700 images and culled that down to around 160 eliminating mostly duplicates and to be honest a fair amount of blurry shots that were totally my fault.  😦

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This unflattering selfie gives you an idea of just how cold it was yesterday.  I took this after standing on the walkway for about two hours.

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On a personal note a dear friend of mine passed away Thursday evening.  We affectionately referred to him as the Kink (long story.)  He was two years younger than me it was a real shock to learn of his passing.  We played a lot of golf together, went on several golfing trips together and played a lot of Euchre.  I will certainly miss his warm smile and giving nature.  God bless and keep you Bob.

Today the sun is shinning brightly and I will bet the walkway at Lock and Dam #14 is shoulder to shoulder.  Unfortunately I cannot go because I have other projects that I have to complete today.  Well there’s always the next time.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ February 17, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 17, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

February-13-2015-2A

Happy Tuesday!

Back at it today.  My 4 day mini vacation is over.  I didn’t venture out yesterday as I found enough projects around the house to amuse myself.  So I’ll show you the remaining images from my trip to Lock and Dam #14 on Friday.

This guy was the only eagle I saw the entire time I was there.   He was sitting in what they call the “Eating Trees” sans a fish.  The funny thing about these trees is that you can walk up right under the bird and they won’t fly.  It doesn’t seem to bother them.  However on the other side of the dam there are the “Eagle Trees” where eagles sit and wait to fish.  My friend Burt says if someone walks over there (and occasionally someone does) the eagles will fly and they won’t come back for hours.

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This guy flew by so close as to offer a photo opt before he landed.  Like I said earlier, it’s not that I don’t enjoy photographing pelicans, it’s just that I really wanted to capture some eagle images on this day so it was a little disappointing.

I’ve always admitted to being a gear head.  But a trip to Lock and Dam #14 will show that I am not on the endangered species list.  There were several tripods (fiber carbon, very expensive) with Nikon D4Ss on them with $7,000 – $10,000 lens attached to them.  The oldest camera I saw (in the Nikon brand) was a D3S.

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Is this cheating or not?  By one of the unattended D4S was this sling shot device with a fish in it.  No need to shoot it into the water as the only bird that would get it would be one of the many pelicans.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by.  Still sending prayers your way Kathy.

Be careful and as the new phrase that unfortunately is becoming common, “be aware.”

Sunday ~ January 25, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 25, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

January-18-2015-5A

Happy Sunday!

Eagle Week – Day 6

These are the last of the eagle images.  At least until I can find some more eagles.  🙂

All three of these images were taken toward the end of the session.  You can tell by the beautiful light on the birds.  This Juvenal had made several passes over the fishing area but had apparently never found anything.  I really love how the fading sunlight makes his eyes sparkle.

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This is an image I didn’t think I had captured.  I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to shooting eagles.  If it’s black, white, brown or in the air I’m pressing the shutter.   The D4 has such a huge buffer you can rip off 80 images of a lot of nothing, so you can’t always tell on the little 3 inch LCD what you have.

I heard Andreas telling Jeanne that he had captured an eagle eating a fish.  I had followed a couple of eagles but hadn’t seen that.  Sometimes you have to wait until you get home in front of your computer to see what you actually did get.

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I gave a whoop and Jeanne asked what that was for and I told I did get an image of the eagle eating the fish.  🙂

When eagles catch a small fish they will eat it in mid-air.  It satisfies their hunger immediately but more important they don’t have to protect their food from the other eagles.  After an eagle puts his talons in the water he will look down at his talons on the assent.  He wants to know if he caught anything (eagles have very little feeling in their talons) and if the fish is small enough he will eat it in mid-air and not worry about the other eagles. 🙂

You can click on the images to make them larger.  The last image makes me want to clear my throat.  🙂

It’s been fun showing you all the eagle shots.  I hope you enjoyed them as well.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.