Sam the Eagle

We challenged ourselves this foggy New Year's day to investigate a new walking trail with Tannah. We'd been to False Creek's Olympic Village already (yesterday), and we've frequented Fraser River Park (a.k.a. Angus Park) the last 2 or 3 years. Stanley Park would have been crazy-busy with the Polar Bear Swim gawkers.

Then I remembered the north shore of the Fraser River along Marine Drive; the stretch approximately between Elliott and Kerr Streets. There's a new riverside trail along that whole stretch of river. Tannah loved it. Lots of birds rusting in the shrubbery.

I brought along my dSLR to get some practice and was richly rewarded in the end. I started off shooting some pigeons on a piling, but the flock exploded from their roost upon the silent swoop-in of a bald eagle. Those things can really clear out a room (or piling, in this case). Since its perch was close it was in easy range of my amateur-grade telephoto lens. I took about a dozen shots before I realized I wasn't using the camera's exposure meter properly. I really am rusty with that camera. After correcting my mistake I got the best shots I've ever taken of an eagle. They really are majestic creatures.

These are the calibre of photos I was after a number of years ago when we visited Brackendale in early January. I'd seen an article in the in-flight magazine on our way home from a Winnipeg Christmas. However I hadn't factored in the fact that we'd be viewing the eagles from across the river. One really does need a cannon-sized (pun intended) lens to do such a photo shoot justice. Fortunately yesterday this eagle was only a stone's throw away next to the pedestrian pier.