Best time of day for eagles

I am assuming the morning. I hear there are eagles at Conowingo Dam in Md, but I never see them when I go. Any advise?

Stefan

Anytime the light isn't harsh. For example, bright noontime sun will cause exposure difficulties because of the high contrast between the white and dark feathers of the bird. So good candidates would be anything like morning, late afternoon, cloudy, snowy, etc.

Stefan A wrote in post #7498016
I am assuming the morning. I hear there are eagles at Conowingo Dam in Md, but I never see them when I go. Any advise?

Stefan

When did you go to Conowingo? The eagles are usually fishing all day from November to January...the more sun the better there but like gymell said you're exposure will require some trial and error.

Try some of the NWRs near you. Specifically Blackwater (Cambridge, MD) if you want to see Eagles. They nest there.

Gymell - what I meant was if there was a particular time of day that eagles are active.

Tim - I have been to Conowingo dam a number of times over the years. But just haven't seen eagles.

Stefan

Ah, then that would likely be early or late in the day. That's what I've observed.

Stefan A wrote in post #7502933
Tim - I have been to Conowingo dam a number of times over the years. But just haven't seen eagles.

Stefan

Stefan go to Blackwater. You'll def. see a few BEs. From Saturday 7 March 09, taken around 9 in the AM.

Thanks for the advise. Yes, perhaps one day I will make it there. That's probably a 3 hour drive for me. Conowingo is around 30 minutes. So I would really like to find some there.

BTW - really nice shot!

Stefan

They are most active mid Morning or later afternoon, more active when it is colder. Either one - whenever you can get the light to your back and the eagle in front of you!

Gene

Hawkman wrote in post #7504775
They are most active mid Morning or later afternoon, more active when it is colder. Either one - whenever you can get the light to your back and the eagle in front of you!

Gene

+ 1

The peak time for numbers of eagles seems to be mid-November to Mid-December. I've made several trips to Conowingo since September and my best day was in December when I counted 26 eagles. I was told that two weekends before Thanskgiving someone counted 160! I haven't been since then. Back in September I saw 6-7 when I went.

Morning is definitely better than afternoon. The afternoon sun is brutal, both in intensity and angle. If you can catch an early morning fog you can get some great shots not only of the eagles but of the surrounding countryside as well.

Thanks Ken. I will definitely be heading back several times in the near future. Especially november and december.

Stefan

It's funny you should ask. After three winters of shooting eagles here, I have found that while they are sitting in the trees after about 9:30am, they didn't become active until roughly 10:30. Then they fished pretty steady for an hour or so, then back to the trees to digest. I didn't bother going in the afternoon, I already had a days worth of shots to edit.

Those Wisconsin eagles are lazy.

HA, could be, but I think they are all just sitting around waiting for someone to go first.

They were like that in Alaska. And fat too! A half dead salmon would float by, and they'd all just sit there and watch. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, one would go out and drag it in. Then they'd all fight over it. Meanwhile there was plenty to go around, but they'd all fight over the one that got dragged in.

Fat and lazy!