testing? practice? EAGLES!!

I went to Conowingo Dam today. Yesterday I watched a YouTube video and set all my camera settings so I could do a better job of photographing birds. Today I went to try it out, 1.5 hour drive away. Before I left I went to my computer to remove my SD card. I remember thinking how much it would bite to drive 1.5 hours there only to discover I'd forgotten my card.

I forgot my card.

I ????
Several synapses didn't fire?? What??

Fortunately, thanks to my cell phone I had the portable internet and saw how to shoot with only one SD card (my camera has two slots and I've set it up to shoot to two SD cards). 

Conowingo Dam is known for having lots of eagles and lots of vultures. I found seagulls. Lots of seagulls. Now, by the end I also found eagles, or the eagles came back. 

I increased my hit rate for ones that look ok if you don't pixel peep AND  increased my hit rate of ones that look good even if you do pixel peep. (That doesn't necessarily mean a high hit rate...) This is not the best shot technically but I thought it was interesting. I sure hope this is a derelict as it is rusty and there is very old vegetation growing halfway up it. [60plus, thank you for hosting.] The incoming eagle has already shoved the eagle down a level and now is coming further to yell at it some more. Later two more eagles, one a juvenile, joined at the horizontal level below. 

The US is sanctioning the Wagner Group - not for atrocities committed i Ukraine but for atrocities committed in the Central African Republic. 

Aleksei Navalny is the gentleman who attempted to run against Putin and released a video showing an opulent guesthouse he alleged to be Putin's to accuse him of corruption. He is in prison. His team fled the country. They are using YouTube to skewer Russia's administration. They are not a news organization, they are openly a political organization, but they still exist. They've reinvented themselves and nearly doubled the number of employees. They had a network of 45 regional offices in Russia. Now they've begun reestablishing 20-30 as virtual offices. Russia has allowed YouTube to continue, which means that Russians can see their new channel. 

King Charles [how long will it take for that to sound normal?] opened the Ukrainian Welcome Center with Ukraine's first lady. 

Ukrainian troops begin training with the European Union. It is a $112 million project to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers as well as deliver weapons. They are also reimbursing member states for weapons sent to Ukraine through its European Peace Facility. 

Because of their incredible impact on the field the Pentagon is going to double to roughly 40 its shipments of HIMARS to Ukraine. 

Slovenia is going to give 40% of its tanks to Ukraine. Norway is going to give 45% of its howitzer long-range weapon supplies. Estonia has given one-third of its defense budget to Ukraine.