Di and Her Eagles

Di had a pretty good weekend. She completed her second half-marathon on Saturday morning AND she made a great time - crossing that finish line in under 2 hours and 45 minutes. I walked along with her for 8 of the 13.1 miles for "support".

Today, I recuperated by sitting in a car with Harvey while driving around Brigantine looking for birds but mostly struck out. I headed back up the AC Expressway at noon, over the Walt Whitman Bridge and onto the Schuylkill (this becomes significant soon) so that I could get back home to caulk the tub - oh joy.  I was just about at 30th St when Di texted me this - "That blob is a bald eagle. Gazebo at Lemon Hill" along with this photo:

iPhone photo - Bald Eagle

That photo is taken with an iPhone so imagine how close Di had to be to the eagle.  This is the second time that Di has sent me an iPhone photo of an eagle at Lemon Hill. The first was a few years ago. She is so lucky. I walk the dog here almost every day for 8 years and have only seen 2 eagles - flying over the river, never perched.

I told you that 30th St would become significant. You can see, Lemon Hill from the Schuylkill Expressway. It is above the boat houses which are about 1/2 mile past 30th St. I was sitting still in traffic at the time but started to move again so I texted back - "so is this" along with this photo:

You can see the Eagle if you look really hard at the tops of the trees.  Don't worry, the traffic was moving so slowly that there was no danger. I didn't look at the phone, I just held my thumb on the shutter button and snapped about 8 photos.

Of course, I had to get a better look. I have been hoping for this situation for years - a photo of a Bald Eagle in the city. It only took me 5 minutes to exit the Schuylkill at Girard and make my way to the gazebo at Lemon Hill where I found Di, Barbara and Sammy waiting for me. I snuck up to the gazebo with my Canon 7D with 400mm lens and snapped about a billion photos. The lighting was terrible but I managed to get a few good ones including this head shot.

Bald Eagle - Lemon Hill Philadelphia

Check out the dark pigment spot on the eagle's eye. It is supposed to be all pale yellow. Cool.  The holy grail of photos still eludes me - a photo of an eagle with the city sky line in the background. Some day, some day.

Congrats to Di for a stellar weekend.