Photos capture fuzzy heads of 2 eaglets in southern Overland Park: ‘Neat to see’
It took hours of patience, but photographer Brian Bloch got the moment he’d been waiting for: two bald eagle eaglets popping up just long enough for him to photograph them in a southern Overland Park eagle’s nest.
Last Wednesday, Bloch, a surgical tool analyst from Prairie Village, and a birding friend made yet another trip to the nest. They had suspected there were two eaglets, but they just hadn’t been able to confirm it with pictures yet.
“But that day, I finally got those pictures,” Bloch said. “It was kind of an exciting deal just to confirm that there were two.”
Bloch, who considers himself an advanced hobbyist photographer and can be found on Instagram at @wilburbernard, said he had been following the nest for four or five years, including one year where there were no eagles. But they are back this year, and he said everybody’s excited.
He wouldn’t disclose the exact location of the nest because he doesn’t want a crowd showing up and bothering the birds, but it is known as the Overland Park nest.
It was exciting to make the photos of the eaglets because the nest is so deep that the eaglets rarely get up to the top to be visible, Bloch said. They had found a spot on a hill, so their vision was about 10 feet below the nest, which he said was pretty incredible and something that is not seen too often.
Just to see one of the eaglets was remarkable. Then they saw the mother head to another part of the nest, possibly to feed another one.
“Then they both popped up for maybe 10 minutes that day,” Bloch said. “That was so neat to see.”
The Overland Park nest is not the only one in the metro that have eaglets. Last week, the City of Blue Springs announced the bald eagle eggs had hatched and two eaglets were spotted in the nest.
Bloch said the Overland Park nest is one of his favorite locations, partly because it’s in the city and there are no ticks. Usually, he looks for places more out in the wild.
It’s taken patience to make the photos of the eaglets. He goes to the nest a few times a week, spending hours at a time. On the day they captured the images of the eaglets, they had been there for a couple of hours. He had been there the day before for maybe three hours.
Bloch captured the images on a Canon R5 II, with a 600 mm f/4 prime lens and a 2x teleconverter, for an effective 1,200mm focal length.
Bloch hasn’t always been interested in photographing birds. He said when he turned 40, about eight years ago, he all of a sudden started caring about them. He doesn’t know why, but thinks it happens to a lot of people.
Growing up in Kansas City, there weren’t a lot of bald eagles, he said. He doesn’t remember seeing them, and he didn’t think they lived here. Their population now appears to be skyrocketing, which he said is great to see.
When asked what he hopes people take away from his photos, Bloch said, “Just how majestic they are. They kind of symbolize our country.”
He added that he hopes people can unify over animals.
