A Bird in the Lens Is Worth a Night in the Blind

Hunched in a makeshift photography blind, 70 feet from a roost tree, I aimed a camera with a 200-to-500-millimeter zoom lens at a group of about 15 bald eagles.

It was snowing hard, and the snow was being blown into the blind. Every few minutes I had to turn the camera and clear snow out of the lens hood.

The dawn temperature was about 11 degrees and, although well-layered, I began to shiver. Putting photography on hold, I took a swig of hot tea from a thermos.

It had taken almost eight hours to drive the 360 miles from Oakland to Tule Lake in northeastern California, and almost two hours to climb the steep, snow-covered mile up to Sheepy Ridge in Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

But when you enjoy wildlife photography and you’ve lived most of your life on the East Coast and have never seen a bald eagle in the wild, you’re motivated.

So I picked up a set of chains for the car, rented the camera lens for a week, bought plenty of film and set off to see the largest concentration of wintering bald eagles in the lower 48 states.

Eagles keep returning to Tule Lake because it’s a funnel for huge numbers of waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway. Many waterfowl die from natural and man-made causes, providing easy pickings for the eagles.

They prefer fish, but will gladly accept an easier meal--a scavenging trait that caused Ben Franklin to object to making the bald eagle our national symbol.

As a result, between December and March about 500 bald eagles journey annually from Alaska to the warmer and abundant feeding grounds of northeastern California and south-central Oregon.

For 10 years the Audubon Society has sponsored an annual conference on the bald eagle that has drawn professional and amateur naturalists from throughout the nation.

The 11th annual Klamath Basin Bald Eagle Conference will be held in nearby Klamath Falls, Ore., in February. There will be workshops, a photo contest, field trips and a banquet. (Contact the Klamath Basin Audubon Society at 503-883-5732 for registration information.)

I was in the blind for about four hours. It was basically a rock structure covered with brush and canvas. Judging from its condition, it had also served as the supply depot for every rodent in the area.

I had planned this photo expedition carefully, remembering film, (I prefer ASA 64 to minimize grain, while giving enough speed to allow the use of faster shutter speeds to stop any action), an extra camera battery, a cable release, a tripod to support the long lens, a thermos of hot water, tea bags, food and warm gloves.

The other thing I took, which in some ways was more important than any of the above, was information.

The day before I had met a very helpful U.S. Forest Service ranger who pointed out the roost tree from the road that passes below Sheepy Ridge.

A permit is required to use any of the photo blinds at Tule Lake (get one at the headquarters building the day before your excursion), which, in addition to the north and south blinds on Sheepy Ridge, include two other more accessible ones near the lake and a third area where tent blinds are permitted.

During December, January and February, you have to be in the blinds before 7 a.m. to minimize disturbance to the eagles.

The blinds on Sheepy Ridge are by far the best vantage points. You’ll be hiking in the dark, rising at least 1,000 feet on a trail you blaze yourself. Toting 30-plus pounds of pack, it was no picnic.

The snow was up to my knees in places and the rocks beneath could only be guessed at.

It was a truly tough hike, and you should be in good physical condition before attempting it.

The south blind is just right for one person, but as the refuge instruction sheet points out: “Two people can work from this blind, but you have to be friends.”

It is quite dark, so you may need a flashlight to read your meter and find your tea bags. And because the blind is nearly level with the top of the roost tree, the eagles can be sensitive to your presence.

Because of this, the refuge staff advises against using a motor-drive camera and recommends at least a 300-millimeter lens.

But I found that even a 500mm lens was not enough, and next time I’ll try to rent a 600mm to fill more of the 35mm film frame.

A fast lens with a maximum aperture of F/4 or wider is preferable but not absolutely necessary, because the birds are flying in and out of the area all day and the light is sufficient.

But in the early morning and early evening a fast lens would be great. Such a lens would also allow you to use faster shutter speeds and slower film to catch any action, with less grain on the final slide or print.

Even with the advice of the ranger, it took almost 30 minutes to find the blind once I reached the roost tree. It’s very well camouflaged and tucked under a pine tree about 70 feet south of the tree.

On the third day, I tried to find the other Sheepy Ridge blind but was unsuccessful. Again the ranger had pointed it out, but was, herself, mistaken in its location.

The hike that day was particularly long and steep, and as it turned out, extremely frustrating. So check and recheck where the blinds are before making the climb.

Remember, too, that since you’ll be parking your car in the dark, on the day before you plan to photograph, mark the mileage from the refuge headquarters building to your photo site, as well as other landmarks.

The blinds are just south of Hotel Rock, a monolith of crags and peaks the eagles perch upon as they survey the feeding grounds below.

Whether you just drive around the refuge’s auto route (where you’ll also see several species of hawks, as well as herons, egrets, ring-necked pheasants and Canada geese, not to mention coyote and mule deer) or you make the trek up to Sheepy Ridge, you will see, and possibly photograph, bald eagles.

And once you watch that magnificent bird in the wild, you may make this trip a yearly migration of your own.

To get to the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge from Los Angeles take Interstate 5 north past Redding and Mt. Shasta to Weed, then take California 97 north to 161 east. Drive until reaching Hill Road and the sign for the refuge headquarters to the right.

Take Hill Road four miles to the headquarters on the right, just past East-West Road. The headquarters has an excellent interpretive museum, lots of information and a six-minute slide show.

As for accommodations, there are two motels in the town of Tule Lake and several in the small city of Klamath Falls, Ore., about a 30-minute drive north.

Also, there’s a year-round campground in Lava Beds National Monument just south of the wildlife refuge.