The New Bald Eagle

Here's a new bald eagle I discovered this weekend. Well, he's new to me at least. I thought I'd spotted a bald eagle out at Robinson Preserve a few weeks ago, but he was far away and the pictures were a little inconclusive. (From a distance, an osprey looks an awful lot like a bald eagle.) But I made it a point to get a little closer on this trip, and sure enough, there he was. But only for a couple of minutes. Not long after I got close enough to squeeze off a few shots, he decided to take to the air and flew off in the opposite direction. Oh, well. You can see the nest in the shot above. I think this is the only eagle nest I've ever seen that was completely out in the open. All the others I know of are in a living tree, tucked in among other trees. I suspect this one may have been like that at one time, but nowadays, this is all that's left.

AirFest 2010!

I normally forget to mention this until the day before, but I'm giving you almost a week's notice this year. Airfest 2010 is at Macdill Air Force base in Tampa, Florida, this weekend, March 20th & 21st! It's free, what more can you ask for? This year's headliner is the Blue Angels, a group I've seen a couple of times now. First time I saw them was in 2004, when they not only flew the spectacular aerial displays you expect out of such a team, they also trotted out the team cargo plane for a few passes, as shown above. So be there or be square!