Some images from this morning may not be suitable for younger viewers. LOL, LOL, I have always wanted to write that. As of this morning there was still only one egg, but on the plus side, they have not started sitting on it in earnest yet. If it ends up being only one egg, it was not for lack of trying. There have been MANY reports of mating this year. It was speculated at the nest this morning that this mating session was purely recreational and not for any specific reason. Who am I to say, this is strictly up to them. Anyway, here are a few from this morning, I edited all the hardcore parts and left enough so that you get the picture The light was bad and my settings could have been different, but it all happened so fast.

Finally had a day off when it wasn’t cloudy or raining.
Sometime last night Julia laid her first egg and the happy couple were in fine form this morning, working on the nest and fooling around a bit.

For some people who don’t know, Don Holland has started a group on Facebook,  Shiloh Eagle Photographers, click the link and follow the group for some great shots and the most current info.

WARNING!!! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

Well today I had a day off and it was to cloudy for pics so I decided to work on my camera. For some time I have been seeing specks in the viewfinder, they were not showing up in my photos so I let it slide. After a lot of research and talking to friends, it was determined it was either on my mirror or my focus screen. So after more research and several websites telling me if its not affecting the picture DON’T mess with it, I did anyway. As soon as I removed the lens I saw a big smudge on the mirror. Before jumping right on it I went through all the standard procedures, first blowing away any dust I could with one of those nose cleaners for babies (it was new). It didn’t do much for it. I knew I was going to have to clean it with something but what, first was Isopropyl  alcohol 91 proof, it looked good til it dried and still had dust and then contact lens cleaner and different things and it seemed to be getting worse so I decided to give up. I went outside and took a shot and oh no, I had spots on the sensor.(first pic) It was just three, so I decided to go in and blow them off, they didn’t move, so I used a photo brush to see if I could kinda sweep them off. Oops, big mistake(second pic). Then I went in to panic mode, Now what was I going to do. More research and then off to town in search of methanol which I should have used to start with, I went in walgreens a man asked me what I was looking for, I told him, he said he was calling the cops. WTH!!! I guess he thought I was wanting meth. I promptly left. I went to walmart and googled methanol while I was in the parking lot to make sure it wasn’t illegal before I went in asking for it.I thought it was some kind of alcohol, but it turns out its more like rocket fuel.Turns out Heet, the fuel treatment product is 99.9% methanol and was $1.67. I loaded up more stuff for a total of $18(third pic) and went home and went to work. I bought rubber spatulas for .97 cents and cut them to 14mm put a lint free cloth over it, added some heet and walla, good as new(fourth pic). The Heet worked great, I still have a few spots in the viewfinder, but I won’t be working on it any, time soon, oh yea before I went to town, I ordered a real cleaning kit from amazon, just in case.While in walmart looking for the heet, I saw the siphon pump for $3.50 I thought it might produce more air for blowing the dust and I knew if it didn’t work, I could always go to a neighbors house and get my money back (lol) .

The lesson here is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Lot of stick activity but not the best light.

Hiram and Julia have mated at least twice this year and possibly more, once was Friday and once Saturday. I had to work all weekend and Monday was rain. I went this morning, at 7:00 it was a windy 65 and the worst light ever, it was horrible. Hiram and Julia were together in the nest tree, they made several flights in and out working on the nest. No matter how many amazing things you see, without light they remain locked in your memory forever even at ISO 1 million.