Fish eagle in flight, a photo from North-West, North

Photographer's Note

I don’t have a TrekNature account (and I don’t do enough nature photography to justify starting one) so I hope you don’t mind me posting this photograph of an African fish eagle in flight over the Chobe River in my TrekEarth gallery – after all, a large proportion of Botswana is made up of game parks, and this is the sort of ‘landscape’ that you see along the many of the rivers.

As its name suggests, the African fish eagle feeds on fish, and according to an entry about the bird in Wikipedia “upon spying from a perch in a tree, it will swoop down and snatch from the water with its large clawed talons and fly back to its perch to eat. Should the African fish eagle catch a fish over 4 pounds it will be too heavy to allow it to get lift, so it will instead drag the fish across the surface of the water until it reaches the shore. Should the African fish eagle catch an especially heavy fish that is too heavy to even allow the eagle to sustain flight it will drop into the water and paddle to the nearest shore with its wings”. A clever bird!

PP: Removed noise and sharpened with NeatImage, then some minor adjustments in Photoshop to levels, shadows/highlights, saturation and contrast, then sharpened more with USM @ 150%.

siolaw, robertbartolome, AiresSantos, riclopes, kevinos, pboehringer, cunejo200, rabani, plimrn, balatrek heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

siolaw (38294) 2006-11-16 9:23

Hi David
No need to justify yourself for posting this extraordinary capture of the eagle's fly!!!Perfect: framing, colors, sharpness, timing!! What more to say!!I just enjoy this picture
Laurent

robertbartolome (270) 2006-11-16 9:32

Hi David,

Perfect capture. I have not done any photo like this one and I hope I'll be able to soon. The sharpness is amazing.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

danyy (0) 2006-11-16 9:48

Hello David,
superbe photo qui montre l'envol d'un aigle avec ses pattes puissantes.
Bien cadrée avec de belles couleurs, le soleil devait être assez fort.
Bien à toi.
Daniel.

AiresSantos (56155) 2006-11-17 4:05

Hi David,
Great POV in this perfect capture. Very good colours, sharpness and framing. Excellent timing.
TFS and greetings
Aires

riclopes (35577) 2006-11-17 5:38

Well David, I don't have time to visit TN or TL, so I usually apreciate to see some photos, more proper of those galleries, here. And this capture is quite impressive, with the eagle in a clear and sharp image, with appealing colors and details. Your timing was perfect and I like very much its pose and placement on the composition, with the "wings" of the trunk parallel to the wings of the eagle.
(You have one of the major variety of countries in TE. Your number of Photographed countries is quite impressive, especially the East side of the world map).
Cheers,
Ricardo

acordeiro (155) 2006-11-17 6:03

Excelente captação e oportunidade.
Um abraço

Álvaro Cordeiro

kevinos (7517) 2006-11-17 11:03

Well you have a beautifully recorded and atmospheric landscape, David, dominated by that lovely twisted, dead tree. The bird, obligingly in the perfect position for the composition, only serves to add drama and excitement and immediacy to a fine landscape

Kenny10pin (19301) 2006-11-17 14:53

great work, the bird is so detailed, really nice photo indeed, well done

kensimage (8563) 2006-11-18 0:06

You caught the eagle at a decisive moment, David. Nice bit of blur in the wings, and that dead tree makes a great setting. You certainly do get around to a lot of parts of the world. You should stay home once in a while, let the rest of us catch up! Regards, Ken.

pboehringer (770) 2006-11-18 22:32

I'm glad that you didn't open an account at TrekNature. This picture still is part of TE. Besides the magnificent eagle that you got extremely well here - ready to attack - you got also the typical landscape of the botswana region.
Kind Regards, Peter

cunejo200 (7281) 2006-11-21 6:52

Hi David,
Excellent capture of this well-focused eagle in flight. The dead tree stumps on the f/g provides a good view of the bird's environment. Best regards. Danilo

rabani (9645) 2006-11-28 3:13

I don't know which has a deeper impression. The gliding eagle on approach or the gnarled, twisted deadwoods. They are both complimentary and yet, by itself an impression.Dear David,for a non wildlife photographer, you sure got it made with this first one. It'll probably stay in my mind for a long time, making an impression whenever I see an eagle.
Regards
Bani

plimrn (21344) 2006-11-30 23:13

Hi David,
This is a wonderful shot of the eagle: the sharpness of the wing and the color is excellent. I laughed out loud at your note; imagining the bird paddling to shore with his wings!! I love shots of birds in flight so I've added it to that theme.
Regards, Pat

ohe (2334) 2006-12-01 1:14

Dear David,
Very nice nature shot ! POV and DOF are very well chosen.
Thanks a lot for sharing,
- Olivier -

andreng (265) 2006-12-04 0:31

David,
A nice composition you have here. Both the deadwood and eagle are equally complimentary. It would have been great if the eagle had a fish in its talons. Very good sharpness and the clear blue sky gave a very excellent background to this shot. TFS Andre

prumod (8300) 2006-12-05 7:49

hi david,
very nice composition of a timely capture.... very god colors... seems the branch also like a bird intending t fly...
greetings
pramod

placombe (7715) 2006-12-16 20:02

Hi David
This is a fantastic shot, a "once in a lifetime" picture that you can be proud of.
Pierre Lacombe
Canada

balatrek (7455) 2007-01-21 16:26

Hi David,

Interesting scene, you have been able to catch a moment very beautiful, the flight of this bird creates a good dynamism in this work, the composition also is good and I like the light. Thanks to share.

Regards
José