Golden Eagle

I had an excellent day today at Rosliston Forestry Centre on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border, taking part in a five-hour eagle photography experience. It was run by Dr. David Glynne Fox, who teaches photography as well as being a highly experienced eagle falconer, and was set up to give the participants multiple opportunities to capture both portrait and flight shots of these fabulous birds.

I arrived home with 770 photo files, which I've so far whittled down to about 570 - I think it may take me a few passes through them to reduce the total to something sensible! This shot of Dr Dave's golden eagle Star is the only one I've exported to jpeg so far - it was one of several that caught my eye as I was clicking through the files because of the nice dappled light in the woodland, and then I noticed the tiny floating down feather and I really liked the contrast between that and Star's rather ferocious expression.

I'm off to commune with a small bucket of red wine now, but I will try to catch up with all your journals tomorrow. Happy Saturday!

EDIT. From the Department of You Learn Something New Every Day (If You're Lucky): Skeena has pointed out to me that what I thought was a feather is more probably an optical phenomenon known as a flying rod, most likely caused by the fast jinking flight of a small insect. Not even slightly rare, apparently - but I don't remember ever seeing one before.