About the Image(s)

Bald eagles are primarily scavengers. They take advantage of whatever they can find on the beaches at low tide. This young banded juvenile bald eagle found a seal carcass washed up on Long Beach, Washington. There were several mature eagles nearby, so the juvenile was demonstrating a possessive behavior, claiming the carcass for itself while it fed. My guess is that this is a female because it is considerably larger than the mature eagles.



Nikon D850, Nikon 500mm f/5.6, 1/1250 sec @f/9.0, +.33 EV, ISO 560



I exported the original photo to Photoshop, using generative expand to provide space around the eagle and carcass. I used Topaz Photo to remove noise. I returned the photo to Lightroom Classic to apply super resolution, sharpening, background masking, and make some slider adjustments in the Develop Basic module, as well as use the Color Mixer. The black dots beneath the eagle’s wings are sand particles shaken from the carcass as the eagle tears away bits of flesh.