I think there are 8 bald eagles together on the ice in this one. It has to suck to be a duck.

Here is another 100% view crop. I downloaded photokit sharpener to see what I could do to the full size view, but really don't know what I'm doing yet when it comes to saving soft images. This too was far from sharp. But considering this is full sized it's not too crazy bad now. I almost forgot what I know was another big sharpness/quality killer. Ever seen those heat waves coming off pavement in the summer? Those will completely kill an image. I've found just how much so when trying to shoot from a running car in really cold air. It just distorts the crap out of what you are shooting when you shoot through that stuff. Well once the sun was up those waves were everywhere you looked out there. I wasn't shooting from my car on this one and it wasn't running either. It was just the sun, ground and ice cooled air(plus cold air early). Some images it really distorted things. All the warm bodies in the water, surrounded by cold ice and cold air just created more of them. But anyway, if the ground between you and the birds was doing that, it just made things worse.

This is the line of trees that had over 30 eagles in it on the 10th.

If it is sitting in a tree here, it's a bald eagle.

This lone tree was sometimes interesting to watch. There would be two eagles perched up there. One would harass the ducks and geese, come back and land. Then the other would take off and do the same. Unlike the 10th, today the bald eagles were relentless. On and on with the harassing. If only I was able to slide out there on a boat or something. Hell this water is super shallow, I imagine less than 5 feet average. A person could get some really wild shots during this if they were closer. I know, all I have to do is look at mine full size. I'm like, good lord if only that was the full frame shot filled like that. And of course the refuge has signs posted so you can't walk to this spot either. Just shoot it way across the ice.

See how shallow the depth of field is at F5.6 at 600mm. That is a full sized crop again, bald eagles well out of focus with the focus closer to the front of the ducks.

Bald eagle flying over, right side. Soon as the ducks see one, fly away fly away! Notice the lack of snow geese in my shots now. Well, they lifted up in the morning, and waves and waves of them all went south. I was like, hummm, I know they go out and eat, but all of them are going south. With this thing being 99% ice, I feared they were leaving for the winter for good. I stayed here till 4 in the afternoon and they never came back. And when they took off it was maybe 1 hour after sunrise, if that. When they never returned, I figured for sure the snow geese show was done for the year. It's always funny to me the photogs that show up late to things. The things one can miss in the morning. Just like the badlands fog storm thing at sunrise this summer when I was up there. People all showing up later to shoot things and I'm just like, you should have been here this morning. This was much the same, as cars and cars arrived to see the snow geese numbers the site still had reported for here. Hell people I talked to flew in from places for it. So anyway, I kept telling people, well they were here at sunrise then took off and haven't been back. The other thing were the people saying they were disappointed there were hardly any bald eagles. I thought, are you high? I guess this lends some idea to how far out there they mostly were. I'd point them out and they'd suddenly be shocked. Well that was when they could freaking see what I was pointing too. That got sort of old too. I kept thinking to myself, how do you NOT see that bigger black thing by itself on the ice....or that one to the right of it.

This was now on the west side of the lake shooting back east at a different group, not far from the others. This too is cropped in. Look at all the heads looking right, on those still on the ice in the background. It's funny at full size, all those back there looking at something, and all these in front taking off as evidently they already saw the eagle. I was shooting the eagles flying over this group just before this and evidently had the focus back this way some. Most of those running to take off are past the focus point. I have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting birds.

This was cool, now back on the east side of the lake shooting southwest. The lightning was nice at this angle, as the eagles zoomed over, scaring up the ducks. Each time it would happen a bunch of spray would be left in the air.

I stayed here till about 4 again. I'd gotten a lot of what I wanted to and figured I was done coming here. I had to leave now so I could return the rented 300mm and 2x converter to Rockbrook Camera in Omaha, which closed at 7pm. If I stayed later I'd have to get up and drive it to Omaha in the morning, and that didn't sound fun. Turned out I wasn't quite done with this place. Part of the reason I figured I was done, was the fact those snow geese never returned after their early morning departure. I'm one that would rather be safe than sorry, and get things while they are there to get, even if it means wasting some trips when you just aren't sure. So, I figured it's only a 2 hr drive and gas is cheap, may as well get up at 4:30 again and drive on down for the 3rd time in 4 days. I mean really, it only cost about $20 to drive down and back, the rest is just time. The other thing was, I wasn't exactly thrilled with what the 300mm F2.8 with 2x converter got me as far as image sharpness. So part of me wanted to take my 100-400L back down and try again, hopefully with good lighting again. Soooo, to see the 3 pages of images from the next day, the 13th, click HERE. It would be the best day yet.