Kelowna man snaps extraordinary eagle photos

Scoring an eagle is rare on the Tower Ranch golf course - almost as rare as sightings of the majestic bird itself.

But local amateur photographer Ernie Serediak has captured some impressive images of one of around only 50 bald eagles living in Kelowna.

And his work is getting some international fame.

It helps that the creature chooses to loiter right outside his back deck.

“Some of the neighbours call me an opportunistic photographer,” Serediak, a retired clinical bio-chemist from Saskatchewan told Kelowna10. His home backs onto the fish-filled irrigation pond next to the tenth fairway.

“As soon as I see something out there, I just go out and shoot … the eagle happens to land on a tree, surveys the pond, and then I take some action shots,” he explained. “I don’t go out looking for them.”

He took his latest images of the bird of prey over the Easter holiday weekend, and posted them to Facebook. He figures it’s the same bird that has been visiting for a few years.

“A few years ago the eagle landed and picked up one of the golf balls. I managed to get a good shot of him with the ball in its mouth. That got some notoriety,” he said, noting the golf course has used that picture for marketing.

Previously, Serediak got an amazing shot of the eagle flying directly towards him with a fish in its mouth being chased by a tiny blackbird.

“I’m in awe of [the eagle], they are such graceful and majestic birds,” he said.

Serediak fares pretty well for an amateur photographer. He said he took some classes fifty years ago in the film days so he could snap decent pics of the family growing up. But when he arrived at Tower Ranch six years ago, he was so amazed by all the wildfire he bought a quality digital camera and long lens. He’s also taken a number of excellent shots of other birds and coyotes.

Arguably his best photo is the one of the bald eagle perched on the frozen lake, scratching the surface, possibly attracted to something below.

“That one, I watermarked it and when I posted it on Birds of BC … that made it around the world. I’ve been getting comments from Italy and all over the place, and I have a number of people who want to make drawings of it. One guy from the US is making a carving of it.”

While Serediak is happy to see his images attract a lot of attention he humbly suggests they’re probably not award winning.

“I don’t know whether I should enter it … I’m not sure whether it’s contest worthy.”

According to the most recent British Columbia Interior Eagle Count, there were 349 confirmed bald eagles in the Southern Interior; 51 of them in Kelowna.

Serediak has made sure one of them is famous.

Check out his photos here.