Mom's morning off

I arrived later than usual (7:45 am) to watch the family have breakfast (the best time of day to observe them), wondering if I'd gotten there too late. Fortunately it was obvious from how the kids were behaving that b-fast was late. Mom was on her favorite perch in a nearby tree, waiting for Dad to show up. He arrived ten minutes later with the remains of yet another rabbit (we have many, many rabbits here this year) and after they finished eating, they treated me to a rare portrait of all three kids with one of the parents. Mom then stopped by for just a minute for her share of the breakfast, but with all five in the nest it was too congested for a proper family portrait. After the folks left the kids put on an energetic display of hoping up and down while flapping their wings--mimicking taking off and flying. Dense wildfire smoke is about to arrive here which may curtail my photo sessions, but this morning I had great light for photos (the thickening of the forest canopy is reducing the amount of light reaching the nest) and the eagles put on quite a show, including the parents flying in and out of the forest. I usually take between 200 and 400 photos during their breakfast hour, hoping a few will be in focus due to the extreme range involved. I have to focus manually; auto focus gets confused with the depth of field involved while also trying to keep up with the movement of the eagles. This morning a high percentage of the photos turned out ok; it was tough selecting which one to send to you.

Canon SL2 DSLR, Celestron 4SE OTA, Manfrotto tripod, f/13, 1/400th second, ISO 1600

Sharpened and cropped.