Eye On An Eagle

Ollie dog was waiting patiently while I togged a robin in the hedge on our morning walk. I heard the equivalent of eek in gull-speak. No sign of the gull but I could see a dark bird very high up in the blue sky. When I trained my long lens on it I thought at first that the light was catching its tail. I then realised that its tail was white and knew immediately that it must be a white-tailed sea eagle. What a thrill! I got a few mediocre shots as it progressed languorously in a north westerly direction. I'm used to shooting tourists' eagles (buzzards) and red kites over my property but this was something very special. A rare bird of prey, the largest, not only in the UK, but in Europe as well. Females can have a wingspan of eight feet.These birds became extinct in the UK in the early twentieth century and were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1970s. 

We had a lovely walk this afternoon at Parndon water meadows and Ollie had a swim in the ford. I think it's amazing that I used the same lens with the same settings that I used to shoot the eagle to shoot a beefly in flight this evening. (Extras)