My travels took me through Aberdeen, Maryland, recently. It was just at the start of eagle season at the Conowingo Dam, so I felt that required a visit. I was able to spend a few hours over a couple days in along with a couple hundred of my closest eagle photographing friends.
The Conowingo Dam dams the Susquehanna River on the line between Cecil and Harford counties, MD. The original town of Conowingo is now under the reservoir above the dam. Conowingo is famous among photographers because something like 250-300 bald eagle winter in the area. The dam keeps the water open. Fish that would prefer to stay deep underwater get stirred up (or even injured) going through the dam and make easy pickings for waiting eagles. The eagles have learned that the lights and siren to alert people that the dam is about to increase the water they’re releasing means dinner is served.
Along with the eagles, there is a large flock of black vultures, several varieties of gulls, a gulp of cormorants and even a pair of peregrine falcons. Photographers new to the dam are allowed to shoot a few pix of the non-eagles before they are roundly abused by their fellow photographers.
Here we’ve got a black vulture flying over the river. The vultures are a problem for visitors, they’ve been known to eat windshield wipers and any plastic part of a car they can get their beaks on. The fishing is pretty good for everyone. Here a double-crested cormorant has caught a nice catfish. Of course, you can always try to take what someone else has caught…. But, the real action is the eagles. When I was there, the winter crowd was just beginning to arrive. The local birders estimated somewhere between 50 and 75 eagles had arrived. Many of the eagles were juveniles. You get frequent close looks as they fly over. But, the real attraction is the mature eagles. Looking down from the parking lot on a mature eagle with a meal. Another fly-by with a meal tucked up under. Bald eagles often seem more interested in stealing fish from other birds than in doing their own fishing. A successful catch often leads to a chase. Here a couple juveniles tussle over a fish, look closely under their wings and you can see the eagle on the right has dropped what should have been his meal. There were several skirmishes between adults and adults and juveniles, but they usually took the fight over the trees along the river and out of sight. There were good views of eagles fishing; this eagle has spotted a fish below and is banking to line up for his dive. There were several flybys with eagles showing off their catch as they headed to perch in the trees behind me. He’s got a good grip on that fish. And, I was lucky enough to catch a few well-lit fishing sequences. Look on the right side of the photo, that’s a fish breaking the surface and about to become breakfast. He makes the grab! He’s made the catch!And, like all fishermen, he wants to show off his catch.
