We've seen the bald eagles along the Yadkin for years. In late March 2006, we were in contact with someone who told us where the nest was. The first picture is a view of the nest from the river.

There is a tall bluff opposite the nest with a great view straight into the nest. All the rest of the pictures were taken from the same location. Some were with a film camera with a 300mm lens, some with a digital camera with a 3X zoom, and some with the digital camera holding it up to a pair of binoculars. We ordered a spotting scope, tripod, and a digital camera holder. All pictures dated May 1st or later were taken with this configuration.

We tend to get up the bluff in early evening when the light is not the best. We're stilling tweaking the technique and some are better than others. And it's tough when they are 200 yds away at the top of a swaying tree. See below the pictures for the geeky hardware details.

So we went out early for some better light - see May 17th pics - and ran into a different problem. Some of the branches around the nest have turned white. If you've every watched a raptor nest, you know why. They juveniles stand up and 'squirt' out the nest. It keeps the nest clean, but anything in the way turns white; and over-exposed with a camera.

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July 4th - Canoed on the river and saw the adults sitting side-by-side in a tree. Later saw an adult circling low over the river followed shortly by an immature. Don't know whether the adult was teaching, "This is how we do it," or the immature was just following it's parent.

June 24th - Two of the immature were in a tree directly across the river from the nest. There is a picture below of one of them.

June 18th - There were two immature eagles back on the nest.

June 13th - And then there was one. It looked lonely hopping from side to side in the nest. No sign of the other two or the adults.

June 11th - We went to see them as thunderstorms rolled by south of us and tornado warnings were north of us. Couldn't tell how many there were for sure, but they were hunkered down in the nest. We saw at least two for sure.

June 9th - Still on the nest, but very active. We watched them take turns flapping their wings and hopping/flying from one side of the nest to the other. Pictures will be up soon, plus a short flapping video if I can figure out how to do it.

June 4th - Still here. On June 3rd an adult landed on the nest with food and the eaglets ate. Everything we've read says they should be gone. They are pretty much the size of the adults and are fully feathered. We'll keep watching until they are gone.

May 31st - We checked on them this morning and there were still young in the nest. It was a pile of black birds so we couldn't be 100% sure it was still 3. We saw 3 eaglets the 28th - all standing on the nest.

May 22nd - They are still here and don't seem in a hurry to leave. They'll stand up, hop around, flap their wings, and sit back down. One of the adults is always around keeping an eye on the nest. They don't seem to be pushing their teenagers out.

Pictures - Click on any small picture to get a bigger version.

April 2nd - Nest from Yadkin. I don't think it's visible from the river now, too many leaves.	April 9th - Nest from bluff	April 16th - Flying	April 16th - Flying
April 16th - Adult on nest	April 16th - Nest & FLying Adult	April 19th - Adult on Nest	April 21st - 3X zoom
April 30th - 66x Scope	May 1st - 3 Eaglets!	May 1st - Lots of Mayflies in the picture	May 8th
May 12th - Hungry baby	May 13th - Whole family	May 13th - Not a great picture, but cool - taken just as one left the nest. Shutter speed is much too slow.	May 13th - Feed me
May 13th - Feeding time on the nest. It looked like a fish, but it's hard to tell for sure.	May 14th - Full stand. Most of the time they lay there, sometimes moving their wings. They are getting close to their first flight.	May 15th - Not much activity. The nest is getting too small for 3 growing eagles. When this one lay back down, it caused a big commotion.	May 16th - Still, not much activity.
May 16th - One of the adults perching near the nest.	May 16th - A state park ranger came by to observe the nest.	May 17th - All 3 eagles visible	May 17th - Spreading their wings
May 17th - Not great, but you can see the immature eagle preening and the under feathers.	May 21 - Three big black birds sitting in the sun all day. They open their beaks to cool off.	May 21 - They move too fast, but the colors under the wing match up with book pictures pretty well.	May 22- Not much activity. At least one adult is always close by. They should be leaving anyday.
May 24th - Neck Stretch	May 28th	May 28th	May 28th - Big Flap
June 3rd - Parents are still feeding and keeping an eye on them.	June 4th - Very alert	June 4th - Fly already!	June 9th - Lots of flapping and hopping and they're spread out more.
June 9th - It's a long way down!	June 13th - And then there was one.	June 13th - I think I can!	June 24th - In a tree across the river from the nest.

It's going to be exciting when they finally leave the nest. They are very time consuming!

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Eagle information

Equipment information

Digital camera is a Canon SD500. 7.1MP with a 3X optical zoom. It doesn't have a true manual or fixed-focus mode, but it does OK. It doesn't have a remote shutter option, so it's set up for a 10 second delay and then it takes 10 frames at 1 frame per second. Pushing the button to take a picture causes a lot of shake, but after 10 seconds it is still. Looking at the pictures in a slide show really shows how much the trees sway. We take lots of pictures, hoping for something to happen (slowly) in the frame. When they move, it's a blur.

The scope is a Celestron Ultima 100 - 45°. Its eyepiece is a 22-66X. The digital camera is attached with a Celestron universal digital camera adapter. It's not really univeral, is the lens is low on the camera body it won't work (we tried a Nikon Coolpix). A spacer would be needed for some cameras. That would seem to add more shakiness to the whole setup.

The pictures of the eagle in flight were taken with a Canon Rebel 2000 with a Canon EOS USM 100-300mm lens. The Celestron eyepiece accepts a T-Mount Adapter directly, so we bought Celestron's version. The Rebel does have a remote shutter, but the mirror opening causes shake. There may be a way to lock the mirror up, but then you're shooting blind.

The scope is a 22-66X and the SD500 has a 3X, giving up to 198X. After shooting for a while (starting May 13th), I figured out that backing off the zoom works better. Slight vibrations don't affect the shot as much, the focus is easier to dial in, and with 7.1MP there is plenty of resulotion to zoom in on the PC.

The tripod is a Velbon DV7000. Very solid and heavy

The Celestron Scope, Celestron Universal Digital Camera Adapter, and the Velbon tripod were purchased as a kit from B&H Photo. So was the SD500 digital camera, the Celestron T-Mount adapter, the Canon 100-300 lens, and most of the other camera equipment and accessories we own.