Today was a really great day. It was cool when we got up but after coffee and breakfast Neil headed off about 0845 or so to visit Ozzie and Harriet again with his new super long zoom lens. He took over 700 shots today but condensed it down to about 300 that he kept and the 15 or so here are the best of the bunch.
Right after he got there he snapped Ozzie sitting on the nest; he was practically standing on the highway for this shot.
Shortly after this shot there was an action shot as he hopped over to the nest to check on the young’ins.
Then he picked up some breakfast for one of the eaglets.
There was a Red Headed Woodpecker on an adjacent tree.
Then Harriet showed up to perch on a nearby tree; first alone and then she was joined by the Red Headed.
Then she flew back to the nest which is out of the picture to the left here.
A Red Tailed Hawk stopped for a bit on a nearby tree and a Kildeer was hunting something to eat on the ground.
Ozzie and Harriet both came back to the nest after a brief fly around.
Then had to man battle stations to drive off a couple of intruder juvenile Bald Eagles.
The adults took off and after a couple of very close passes drove the juveniles off; he didn’t get a a shot of the near collision but here is one of the adults in pursuit.
There was a minor horse disagreement in a field just past the nesting tree.
and an American Kestrel perched on another nearby tree.
As well as a yearling snacking on grass under the nest.
All in all a really great day of picture taking. I was going to post this nice flight sequence of one of the adults but this post is already photo intensive enough so I managed to restrain myself.
Heading home we had some lunch then Neil went on a bike ride while Connie took a nap as she’s still not feeling up to par. Dinner was thinly pounded pork tenderloin coated with flour/egg wash/panko bread crumbs and fried crispy; accented with a shallot/wine/lemon sauce. Garlic mashed potatoes and left over veggies from the other night completed the dinner. Quite yummy.
Neil’s replacement hard drive was shipped from Illinois yesterday so it should be here early next week. Don’t know what we’re doing for the weekend yet but Tuesday we’re off to Key West for a couple of days of fun. Should be some good birding on the way down and we’ll make sure to take a lot of pictures of the celebrations down in the Conch Republic to post.
Cyas.
Travels with Gunther and Kara 
I’m green with envy at those wonderful bird photos. Keep up the good work, your fans are enjoying your retirement. Take care. Cynthia
Thanks for the nice words; they are majestic birds, aren’t they? We’re off to Key West for a couple of days next week; will probably see more wading type birds and Pelicanswe might see an Osprey which is colloquially called a Sea Eagle but not too many birds of prey otherwise.
I love it that you tell what you had for dinner…I hate to cook but what you eat sounds so good, that it makes me want to try harder! Loved the eagle photos today…nothing boring about being out in nature, that’s for sure!
Thanks for your kind words. My momma started me on the road to cooking at an early age so I would be at least self sufficient. I discovered I liked it. Don’t be fooled though, it really isn’t all that hard and sometimes I probably make it sound a lot more exotic than it really is.
neil
The three kinds of stress…nuclear, cooking and a&&hole. Jello is the key to the relationship.
Wow! That new lens has already paid for itself beyond words; magnificent pictures! Share more!! ❤
I dunno; with the 4 digit price tag I think I need to have a few more before it’s paid for itself. It was pretty expensive for us but we finally decided that it was about 1 month’s worth of campground fees (i.e., not all that much in the great scheme of things) and since we want to have lots of cool pictures to put on the blog decided it was worth it.