“Letting dreams take flight in Alice Springs.”
Background photo taken 8 February 2022, across Alice Springs Airport to the East Macdonnell Ranges around Undoolya in incredible sunset light.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle in the photo is the one I called The Orange Youngster.
Was she hatched and raised in an eyrie (nest) somewhere?
They are hidden in the background between the airport and the ranges.
If ever an Eagle belonged to this creative image, it would have to be her, so I put her there.
This is a Wedge-tailed Eagle photo story. I took these photos in series with my camera on top of a single cement post in the middle of an open paddock under the flight path into Alice Springs Airport. It was a fantastic experience. The two Eagles are the beautiful Pale-golden Youngster and an adult male (presumably her father). I had photographed the youngster previously at length when she was still clumsy and flapping about in a tree (probably still a fledgling). Her parents had perhaps only recently stopped feeding her, and she needed to learn some carrion manners and wait her turn.
This day, in what appeared to be a deliberate lesson, her father moved what was left of the carrion to place it in front of her. Then, each time she rushed in, he flared and sent her leaping away. She wandered through the grass to come back and try again. Three times she tried, and each time, he sparked and sent her leaping away. Then she shuffled submissively up to him. He didn’t open it; he flew and left her to eat the carrion.
I think he was enjoying himself, displaying just enough force to get the message across to her.
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