Juvie Eagle Peek a Boo

The start of Memorial Day weekend.  It's not raining.  I needed to get out of the house for a while.  Off to the park.  I went a bit later in the day, or evening than my usual visits.  Light could have been better.  When I got to the nest, one parent was sitting in the trees.  Another post.  I stayed at the nest for almost two hours.  The parent took off about 10 minutes after I arrived.  I stayed that long thinking that the bird would return.  It didn't.
But, as it turned out it was a great stay.  Seems to me there were two eaglets in the nest earlier in the year.  I only saw one today.  The one I did see was getting big.  After a while it would get up and stretch its wings.  Flapping a bit.  And sort of hoping around.  Fun to watch.
I'll probably post a shot or two of the wing stretch.  Most are only interesting because of the workout, but the bird was always looking away from me.  Wonder if there was a wind direction thing?
One of the photos from the evening has the Eaglet looking right at me.
This was so cool.

Juvie Eagle Peek a Boo

NIKON D780 Ver.01.01/200-500mm f/5.6

500 mm, 1/2500 sec, F/5.6, ISO 1100 (AUTO)

MANUAL Mode, Size FX

First, I was pretty lucky in that as the leaves are starting to come in there is less of a clear view of the nest.  I don't have a lot of room to maneuver in the viewing stand, and past experience has often shown a wayward branch in the way.  In this shot, clear sailing to a view.  But there was an issue to overcome.  This is not a 500 mm shot.
This is the original 500 mm shot.

That's a lot o' crop.
The only way this works is if you can see the Eaglet.  A little closer.  If you can see the eyes good enough.  It was a good project to try AI Gigapixel.  I tried the deep crop process with PS and AIG.  The Gigapixel did a fantastic job.  I also thing the D780 image to start with helped.  Not sure if the crop on the D500 would crop this deep.  But with the crop factor on the D500, this is a 750 mm reach - but would require a crop as well.  This combination worked well.  This passes the home monitor test easily.