One photo a day challenge: Day 296.

Had a fun day birding at one of my favorite locations, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

It was a great day for birding.

Our first lap around the wildlife drive was full of birds.

Lots of waterfowl.

A surprising number of Bald Eagle sightings. We had at least 6 Bald Eagle sightings.

I love all the variety of ducks especially all the Northern Pintails we saw.

But, my birding heart is really with the raptors, always.

So when it comes to picking a photo to share for today it is definitely a photograph of one of the Bald Eagles we saw.

We were super fortunate. Our day could not have started off any better.

We pulled over at the very beginning of the wildlife trail because I wanted to walk along one of the trails there for a minute.

I just happen to look up into the large tree right there. And there was this dark shape. “Is that really an eagle?”

I put my trusty 300mm lens to my eye. Sure enough a juvenile Bald Eagle perched unexpectedly right in front of us.

The bird stayed put so I could get in position to get decent lighting on him.

I watched for several minutes. And I was in the right place and just the right time when the eagle took flight.

I love this image. I punched it up a little in post processing to bring out the detail in the eagle a little due to the early morning light and the dark feathers of the bird. And I added a vignette to the outer edge of the frame.

What are your favorite birds to see?