Then hang out at a cannery!

Prince Rupert is a small city (about 13,000) with a thriving fishing industry and a  port for car ferries and container ships. We were told that nearby Mt Hays provides a wonderful vista and lots of eagles, but this YouTube video of the road is no exaggeration — we only took our little Scion 1/4 of the way before giving up that trip. We were afraid of getting lost in the potholes!

Fortunately, however, Prince Rupert does provide many other opportunities for beautiful sights and eagles!

The cannery at Fairview Bay comprises 3 buildings: One where fish are cleaned and canned (mostly for export), one where the fishermen repair and store nets, and a reduction plant that converts what is unfit for human consumption into animal feed. “How do we know this,” you ask?  Well, the eagles love fish, they know the layout extremely well, and they are most happy to share. Oh. Sorry. I meant to say the fishermen, not the eagles. The eagles were more into posing as you can see in the photos in the album called 05-23 Fairview Bay at the right.

These birds look magnificent, but we only came to understand their size when we saw a large crow chasing one. Usually we think of crows as some of our largest birds at home, but the eagles dwarf them with wingspans of 80″ inches compared to the crows’ 36″. The eagles can weigh up to 15 pounds — nearly 15 times that of an American Crow!

I’ve had a blast with my new camera lens (Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 with 2x Teleconvertor for an effective 600mm focal length for those who care). I think the eagles must like it, because they just seem to pose for me without a care that I’m well within photographic range. The album noted above, and yesterdays called 05-22 Prince Rupert both have some nice eagle pictures taken by both Susi and me.

Although they are not the sharpest because it was late and nearly dark, I really enjoyed getting these three of the eagle taking a fish from the harbor.  I’ve managed to get a few nice eagle “portraits” already, and I hope that I can learn to also catch some clear shots of them in flight in the coming weeks.