By Ted Grussing
… just before we headed back to the south ramp at Lake Pleasant this afternoon, I saw an adult Bald Eagle headed our way at about 500 feet above the lake. Just for the fun of it I got a focus and began shooting it … easy to delete shots not really worth keeping! Then it began a dive and I continued to track it and in the next few seconds it leveled off just above a rock it frequently perches on and went into full assault mode against a juvenile Bald Eagle that was perched just above where the adult perches. The juvenile eagle senses and sees the attack coming and just before impact, he rises to meet his attacker.
This is the shot where the adult makes a hugely powerful impact on the juvenile and knocks the juvi on his back. The juvenile regained his sense of bearing just before he would have hit the ground and the low level attack and pursuit headed down the cliff and then up and over a ridge and we did not see the final phases of the attack.
Likely the juvenile was encroaching on the territorial hunting rights of his elder … law broken and order quickly restored … such is life in the real world. I’ll be sending more shots from the sequence out over time … my first air to air combat sequence involving eagles.
We left at 4:30A yesterday morning and spent nearly six hours on the lake … home about 2:30P … time to shut the day down. Enjoy the elegance of a cattle egret flying and two snowy egrets perched on the shore of an island in the lake. Life is good and a gift that comes new everyday until it doesn’t. Smile, keep breathing and choose to see the beauty in life and those you meet and greet.
I am far behind in my correspondence due to the choices I make … I shall endeavor to catch up again over the weekend as well as putting the photo of the owls up in the website store.
Back Monday morning … such is my plan. Choose to engage in life.
Ted
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
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