Enroute to an appointment recently in Mission, it was hard not too notice numerous Bald Eagle silhouettes in the fog along the river. In my limited experience photographing these amazing birds of prey, I've found they tend to be very camera shy. Most attempts to get anywhere near them are lost as the birds take flight before I'm anywhere near close enough to shoot. To my great fortune, this younger eagle was quite tollerant of my approach and let me capture a few menacing expressions before taking flight.

Bald Eagle Facts:

• they live to be up to 30 years of age in the wild
• they don't get their unique markings until they are 4-5 years old
• they mate for life (but are happy to replace them if the mate dies or disappears)
• aproximately 40% don;t survive their first flight
• altogether, the feathers of a bald eagle (aprox. 7000 in total) weigh almost twice that of its entire skeleton, as most of the bones are entirely hollow
• a female's wing span can be up to 8 feet
• a bald eagles nest can weigh as much as two tons!
  

The Recipe: Canon 5D MKII, 70-200 F4 L Series lens, iso 200, f5.6,
1/3200 shutter speed. HDR handled manually in CS4.