annual eagle watching trip

On December 28th, we made our yearly trek to the Eagle Watch trail in Gentry.

Previous trips  2012 / 2013 / early 2014  

We only saw a couple of eagles flying over this time and a bird that we think could have been a golden eagle.

We also saw a killdeer, a sandpiper and a turtle peeking out of the water!

We think the guy above may be a golden eagle.

This is definitely a bald eagle flying over!

She loves her binoculars

The killdeer and the sandpiper.

Birds that you can expect to see at our viewing spot.

This little guy poked his head up to say hello!

Eagles

It has become a tradition of ours to go to Gentry to an Eagle Watch Nature Trail every December/January.  This was our third year.

This was our first trip in early 2012.

This was our trip in early 2013.

This past trip was on December 31st.

Photographing nature is probably one of my favorite things to do.

We were lucky enough to see a couple of eagles this time, although not as many as we have seen before.

However, they stayed pretty far away.

What a beautiful majestic bird!

Eagle watching and snow

Last year, we read in the local newspaper that you could eagle watch in our area.  Eagles roost in certain spots in northern Arkansas in December and January.

We went here last January to the Eagle Watch trail in Gentry.

We headed out again last week to try our luck again at seeing eagles.  This year I also had my  18-270 mm lens to try out.

The drought from this year and dried up a lot of the water in the area.  We did see an eagle, but he was over a football field away from us, so it was very difficult to get a good photo of him.

We stayed for a little while, but the kids were cold and getting restless, so we finally left. 

On the way out of Gentry, we decided to drive down a road that we though would lead to water and hopefully a sight of eagles.

On the way, I spotted an eagle sitting in a tree right beside the roadway.  

We were literally 30 feet away from him.

It was majestic. 

This definitely made the trip worth while. How many times in a lifetime do you come this close to a bald eagle not in captivity?!

Later that afternoon when we were back home, it started snowing!

It started snowing pretty hard so the kids went outside and played in it while it was falling.

They had a blast!

We got close to an inch and it was pretty much melted by the next day, but it was beautiful and fun while it lasted!

What a fun Christmas break treat!