conowingo dam

went today but it was very slow. they were supposed to run water but didn't so not much action. came away with only one shot out about 20. was very cold and windy

eagle-with-fish by LW_NJ, on Flickr

 

well that one shot is a great one, nice and crisp, i have finished culling and i kept about 50, if i was really fussy about sharpness it'd be down to 30 or so, there weren't too many chases that day so this is the best i got of a juvenile trying to steal a fish



this one grabbed a fish so big he could barely get off the water with it



and i guess they really can't feel the grip with those talons?? i noticed a lot of them looking down once to check out the fish while flying off the water

 

activity is picking up the past few days. working on a Tuesday trip. if I go I will give you an update

 

they were running water today but it was slow. only a few keepers and light was tough. sun in and out


conowingo-eagle by LW_NJ, on Flickr

conowingo-eagle by LW_NJ, on Flickr

 

these are nice, and that looks like a little striper in the first shot, i believe they call those rockfish in maryland. below is a shot of one of the display birds when it was eagle day at the dam, i wish i had payed more attention to what this bird is called, i do remember hearing something about this being the smallest north american hawk, it wasn't much bigger than a healthy dove,

 

the smallest hawk in North America is the Sharp shinned hawk. they resemble a small coopers hawk. one of many hawks I don't have a pic of yet. plenty of coopers and red tails but no sharp shinned yet

 

this is north Americas smallest falcon. the American Kestrel

kestrel by LW_NJ, on Flickr

 

eagle mania postponed due to forecast. 80% chance of snow all day Saturday at conowingo so no go for me. flat light, low visibility and bad roads home when I have a 7 pm dinner party that I must be at or face domestic pressure over photography priorities. still a real possibility for 12/21. next Thursday weather channel forecast will be decision time

 

I went to the dam yesterday and managed a couple of decent shots. My 400mm is a little short on full frame but when they come in close, nice shots are possible with cropping. The hotline noted that they were going to run 3 large and 4 small turbines until 10:00am and then shut down until 3:00pm, but they shut the large ones down early at 8:30 and the rest on time at 10:00am after that activity died almost completely, so I left around 11:30. I definitely want to go again this year. The weather forecast is calling for full sun Sunday morning, so I may make another trip then as long as they aren't going to shut down for several hours again.

Anyone want to do a trip down there this year? We talked about it last year, but didn't get it together.

Also, the dam is currently operating under a 1 year extension with the future uncertain. The state of Maryland is trying to get it shut down based on accusations that during storm events the dam releases large amounts of sediment into the bay due to scouring action in the Conowingo pond. The Army Corps of Engineers recently released a study that claims that less than 20% of the sediment entering the bay during storm events comes from the Conowingo pond, the rest comes from up river and would enter anyway. That report gives hope that a full license extension will happen this year, but since Maryland has taken upon itself to save the bay without help from the other states that drain into the bay, one never knows what's going to happen. Obviously the power company will not dredge the Conowingo pond in order to continue to operate the dam given dredging costs estimated into the billions of dollars.

 

last I heard is they will not renew the license. went there once this year and it was dead. luckily Forsythe has had more eagles this year than I have ever seen so except for pics of them grabbing fish I got a lot of eagle shots so far


eagle by ex_fuzz, on Flickr


a stranger approaches by ex_fuzz, on Flickr