Eagles of Conowingo (December 2010)
by John and Maria Eng (Main content: 12/7/2010. Pages made: 4/21/2016.)| The bald eagle has been our nation's symbol since 1782, when it appeared in the Great Seal of the United States. Despite its historical signficance, neither one of us had ever observed a bald eagle in the wild. Less than an hour's drive from our house is the Conowingo Dam, a large hydroelectric dam across the Susquehanna River, not far from the river's mouth at the Chesapeake Bay. When the dam is generating electricity, fish are drawn into the dam's turbines and are stunned or killed, providing easy food for piscivorous birds such as gulls and eagles. According to local web sites, the eagle population at Conowingo Dam peaks around Thanksgiving time, so we decided to have a look. In addition to taking along our binoculars, we rented a Canon 500 mm f/4 telephoto lens for our first attempt at bird photography. All photos in this section were taken with this lens on a Canon 5D Mark II camera. A Canon 1.4X teleconverter was also added for most photos. (  back to home page) |
| Birds of Conowingo Dam (back to home page) |
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• Torrent. • Ring-billed gull. • Bald eagle in tree. • Bald eagle in flight. • Bald eagle in flight. • Bald eagle in flight. • Great blue herons. • Great blue herons in trees. • Bald eagle in tree. • Bald eagles fighting. • Bald eagles fighting. • Bald eagle fishing. • Bald eagle feeding. • Pair of bald eagles. • Great blue heron in flight. |
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