Ok, day 2 of this, and now I have a rented Canon 300mm F2.8 and Canon 2x converter to get me to 600mm. In the end, I think the 2x converter did a number to the image quality anyway, so that it didn't seem terribly worth it. That and I do not have a good enough tripod for this stuff. I'd zoom in 10x on my live view, to get focus just right and then watch it till it stopped moving around to snap the picture. Well, when zoomed in that far on the screen, down to about pixel level, it really never stopped moving around! Well I know it did on some, but a lot it just wanted to move on my cheap light weight tripod. Nothing I got with that 300mm and the 2x converter on impressed me with sharpness. Most were really really far from sharp. There are only so many things you can do to get the most out of the lens as far as sharpness. Mirror lock-up is one. Well I kept using the live view mode for focusing, and left it on for the shot, since it only works when the mirror is up anyway. So mirror lock-up...check. Shutter speed was fine mostly. Tripod...well....I know at times it was fine as I'd watch the screen while it was zoomed in 10x on there, until it stopped moving. The only other thing left to do was perhaps stop the lens down, since many lenses do better stopped down a bit from wide open. Well, the 2x converter forced the F2.8 to a F5.6 minimum aperture. I never really stopped down from there and perhaps that was the problem. I think the biggest problem, was simply using a 2x converter, as they are known to degrade quality. But the 300mm F2.8 is a really high dollar lens, so I figured it would still be great. I was wrong. My 100-400L was able to get sharper images than the 300mm with that 2x converter attached. So anyway, every image from the 12th, starting with the bigger moon one and onward, were taken with the 300mm with the 2x converter attached.

To get down here before sunrise I had to get up at 4:30 and leave by 5:00. Yay for that! Like normal, I couldn't sleep till about 2...at least the night before this day. This night was a lot easier to fall asleep early.

I hoped they'd still be around, as I knew their numbers were dropping and I wasn't here the day before. The moon reflecting off the ice was really neat when I first got there. But it was quickly getting lighter out. I was here about 30 minutes before sunrise. I don't know, it was just really neat in the very early morning both this one and the next. The geese were constantly flying around above the ice, and you add in the moon light there and it was just cool. I didn't get many(1) images of the reflecting moon, as I was trying to get the geese with it like in the first image.

2x converter is now attached! If only I had $7500 for a real 600mm lens(or to pay down my credit card I guess, lol). 600mm kind of rules. That tree line the eagles are in is not close at all. Oh yeah, and this converter was also evidently giving me color fringing issues. The bottom of the moon was red fringed and the top a yellow/green. The white of the eagles and geese wanted to tint green as well right now.

It was nice the moon was full, and setting at this time. There is a window of light where it all can balance well...unlike if it was darker out and you tried to shoot it like you see it....with a foreground. This was also the closest/biggest full moon of the year, but that's not why it looks so big, that's just the 600mm view zoomed in on it. At full size that moon will fill my 17 inch monitor. It looked really cool zoomed in on my lcd/live view at the time, with the bald eagles perched where they were.

Morning light rules.

More morning light. At least 5 bald eagles in the trees on this one.

This has to be cropped in some. At least 8 bald eagles in this one. There are 4 juveniles and one adult on the ice, at least. For what it is worth, I don't think they get their white heads/tails until they are 5 years old, perhaps a mix of it when 4.

I think there are at least 13 bald eagles in this one. The juvenile ones are harder to make out on the ice with that background.

I could maybe do this a little better, sharpening that is. This is a 100% view crop of a larger picture, and was very far from sharp. Actually the ducks that weren't moving were probably fairly close. The other thing is is just how shallow the depth of field is out there at 600mm. But anyway, you get an idea just how big the bald eagles are compared to those mallards.

This is very cropped in as well. I believe I had the focus set on that closer line of mallard heads. You get anything much on either side of that and they will be out of focus. I should have probably stopped down a full stop and then just ISO'd up, but I didn't. And again, that 2x converter evidently wasn't terribly friendly to sharpness. Another page of several images from the 12th here on Page 2.