This magnificent creature lives around here somewhere. I have seen him many times in the distance or sometimes just high in the sky ... high enough that he cannot be captured with a 400 mm lens.
This is the closest I have caught him and this happened yesterday morning, while he was being chased by a large number of small birds.
I took the mullet with me this morning. I saved it especially for my eagle and planned on tossing it in the water for him to swoop down and steal for breakfast, while I snapped continuously to capture the perfect eagle shot.
There was no sign of any of the big birds this morning. Very very unusual.
Every morning the whistling kites sit in the tall tree near the Seat of Knowledge whistling away, and sometimes swooping down to fish their breakfast out of the river.
The Brahminy Kite regularly soar above the river also searching for food and having to fight off the seagulls and terns who try to steal the food.
So this morning was unusually quiet and the skies were empty of birds (except the shags who continued to follow their usual flight path over the river).
There have been a high number of tourists in town this weekend for a Kite Surf Carnival and also a caravaning group filled the park. This created lots of traffic on the roads and in the river and along the beaches, so perhaps the tourists scared the big birds away?
So plan B was to go to an open beach area and throw the fish into the water. I imagined the eagle seeing it floating on the surface, it's silvery skin glistening in the sunshine and it would fly down to the beach and swoop down for my shot.
I rode to the very end of the path, took the fish out of the bag, walked down the steps onto the beach and tossed the fish as far out into the water as I could manage.
The fish promptly sunk to the bottom like a rock. What the??!!
I waited and I watched, hoping it would rise to the surface. I felt like a complete doofus!
That was the end of that!
So I packed up my camera and climbed back on my trike and rode home.
Not a single photo was taken. My White Bellied Sea Eagle shot has to wait for another day.
Nite all.
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