The Wilson House in Monterey, VA located in beautiful Highland County, VA was great this Fall season of 2021. We saw some of the most epic Eagle activity we have ever seen. The fall weather was slower this year as there was no real cold snap. We did manage to get good fall color shots despite the weather. We did have a goal this year and that was to get a good shot of a bird on a pumpkin. We saw a post on the internet from Birds & Blooms Magazine that had a great shot of a Chickadee with it's wings up eating a sunflower seed off of a pumpkin. We decided we could do that shot and maybe better. We got our pumpkins from Fair Lawn Farms in Monterey, VA. We go over every falls for the Highland County VA Hands & Harvest Festival. Tim Duff the owner of Fair Lawn Farms in Monterey, VA grows pumpkins every year and so we decided to grab a few and set them up on the fence posts and put seed on them for the birds. It worked out pretty good and we got some decent photographs
We also managed to get some good eagle shots. There were a few dead deer near some roads we travelled and the Eagles love dead deer. Also a couple farmers set out their dead lambs for the Eagles and Vultures during this time of year too. We found a bunch of Eagles down in a creek and upon closer inspection we saw an 8 point buck and a 6 point buck that must have locked horns and both died fighting near this creek. There were at least 10 Eagles in that area daily. We got so many Eagle shots, there are to many to post. The mature Bald Eagles always managed to stay further away while the immature Bald Eagles would get closer to us. We love our fall season wildlife bird photography in Highland County VA
While travelling around the country roads photographing wildlife we manage a few landscape shots as we travel looking for wildlife to photograph. The leaves were beautiful this year and in full splendour. We are not landscape photographers by any stretch, so we have to work a half way decent shot. Landscape photography is a world unto it's self and those who do it, do it exclusively, we just play around with it every now and again.
While travelling the country roads we manage a few farm animals too along with wildlife. We saw quit a few horses this year. Some Amish farmers are raising horses in Monterey, VA and they had a lot more than last year. We got a cute picture finally of a bird on a cows head. The starlings are always following the cows around the field and we finally grab a photograph of a starling on a cows head. We liked it because the cow wasn't black making it easier to see the bird. We did not see many bucks this year as we did last year, but as always there are cycles to wildlife from year to year. We were happy with our Eagles shots this year and they made up for lack of Big Bucks. The trips are always great and we look forward to this coming year to visit again.