Welcome to another edition of Let’s Talk Photography!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about travelling to nature and wildlife reserves for an opportunity to get some nice exotic portraits of animals. This week, I want to share with you my recent trip to Lake Wilhelm in the Maurice Goddard State Park just south of Meadville, Pa.

After a few tips from friends about the variety of birds and waterfowl that could be found around Lake Wilhelm, I decided I wanted to take an early morning trip and see if I could capture some great images. The lake is only an hour and 45 minutes away so my plan was to get up on a Sunday morning at my normal bakery time of 4 a.m. and get there before sunrise. Learning of my plan, my son Jacob expressed an interest in going so I charged the battery in the camera he uses and sent him to bed early so he’d have no problem waking up. It turns out he was so excited about the trip that he woke up sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. and sat at the end of my bed waiting for my alarm to go off. After

a bowl of oatmeal, we hit the road around 5 a.m. and arrived at the lake just as the sun was breaking the horizon.

Travelling south on the I-79, we took exit 130 to the town of Sandy Lake. There’s an exit before that which takes you to the marina at the lake, but the Sandy Lake exit will take you to the entrance into the park where there’s a dam that feeds a creek at the southern tip of the lake. As we drove the road going into the park and alongside the creek, we were immediately excited to see two adult eagles and one immature eagle flying from tree to tree above us as they were doing some morning fishing in the creek. So, Jacob and I grabbed our cameras and pulled the car over and got out to see if we could get some photos. The eagles allowed us to walk up to the edge of the creek and take a few shots before they decided we were a little close for their comfort and headed upstream and over the dam to the lake.

Just a little further up the road was the parking area at the dam so we pulled over and got out to walk around a bit at the dam and talk to the early morning fishermen who were setting up their poles. As we were standing there, the eagles returned along with a great blue heron to do a little more fishing before they took off again back across the dam.

Our journey continued after a little walking around and we started up the road that runs alongside the lake, pulling over several times to watch as eagles and osprey fished the lake before any boats made their way to that side of the lake. We also enjoyed several varieties of ducks and geese including a large group of loons who were popping in and out of the water catching some fish for themselves.

Eventually, Jacob urged me to go to the waterfowl observation area which is a pond right across the street from the marina where they’ve built an observation deck right on the water to get a better look at the many species of ducks and geese that gather there. Upon our arrival, we knew something big was happening because there were cars all along the roadside with giant camera lenses sticking out of the windows all pointing into the observation area, so Jacob and I gathered up our cameras and headed down to the deck to see what they were all photographing. It only took a few seconds to see that there was a huge nest in the tree directly across from us and, once I got the camera focused on it, we realized we were watching an eagle feeding its babies.

We’ve tuned in on the Internet to the many eagle “nest cams” to watch baby eagles hatching and growing up and it always feels special watching them. This time, I had that very scene in my camera and I was amazed at how incredible it felt to watch. There were several times the two babies would pop

their heads up out of the nest and look around. A few times, I was lucky enough to capture them when they were looking directly at me.

After an hour or so of watching the two adult eagles taking turns feeding the babies and circling above us to keep an eye on what we were doing at the other side of the pond, we finally headed back down the lake to see if there was still any activity by the dam. Driving along the road, Jacob pointed out that there was a blue heron flying down the shore of the lake right alongside our car and matching our speed. This sounded like a great opportunity so I sped up a bit and beat the heron to the next clearing in the trees where I was able to grab my camera and capture it as it flew by us. Once more I past by and met with it right at the dam and got some more shots as it flew by and went down the creek.

It was an incredible adventure for us and I highly recommend a trip to anyone looking to capture some great photos of birds and waterfowl nearby. We will definitely take another trip soon and see how the baby eagles have grown and try to get some more great photos of them as they mature and eventually leave the nest to enjoy the lake, themselves.

Until next week, happy shooting!

Is there a topic that you’d like to learn more about? Send feedback, share your photos, or offer topic suggestions to talkphotos@ecklof.com. If you’re looking for a place to connect with local photographers in Chautauqua County, search for the group “Shoot ‘n Share Chautauqua” on Facebook.