Yesterday morning I headed to my favorite early fall foliage area hoping to get there before the sun broke through. However, I never made it. As I travelled along the shore of Lake Mascoma I spotted a bald eagle. I took some distant photos in foggy backlight, then moved closer. Surprisingly the eagle seemed quite unconcerned about my presence. The photo on the left is only minimally cropped.
I moved to a different vantage point slightly farther away as the eagle groomed its feathers, peered around, and generally looked regal.
Eventually it flew up the lake. I followed and found it on top of a pole on the new Shaker Bridge. I did not need to do any cropping to get the frame-filling view in the photo on the left below. The photo on the right shows my camera and the eagle on the top of the pole.
By now the sky had cleared and the eagle stood out well against the blue sky. I just wish it was in a more natural place.
Eventually the eagle flew to another pole farther along the bridge. This allowed me to get a photo with some early fall foliage in the background.
Here is a photo from this morning at one of the spots I planned to visit yesterday.