Four on a Friday

American Ringed-necked ducks are very cool looking with the white markings on their face. I can't figure why they don't call them Ring-billed ducks since the white ring around their bill is much more obvious from a distance than a ring around their neck. The brown one in the middle is the lone female in this bunch. For a supposedly common duck, I don't really see all that many of them. They might be mistaken for the Greater Scaup which has similar markings sans the rings.

Here is another mystery. I don't understand why this swan is so perfectly content to live life alone. You would think it would miss the companionship of others of the same species. There was a Sandhill Crane in this area a few years ago that also spent its days in a solo existence for at least a couple of years. I don't know if it is still in the area or whether it finally went looking for other Sandhills.

Here she (or is it he?) is patrolling her domain. I wonder what her reaction would be if another Mute Swan visited the pond. That would be interesting to see. Her wings are in the raised or "warning" position indicating an aggressive attitude, although I don't remember anything being near her that she might be upset with. Unless it was me. She had passed by me a few minutes earlier.

It is open season on Wood Ducks right now. It wasn't all that long ago that the population was facing extinction of a lack of good nesting sites. They naturally nest in tree cavities found in bottomland hardwood forests. Volunteers got organized and started building and installing nesting boxes and, before you know it, the ducks started coming back. There was probably a population of between twenty-five and fifty at this pond early in the spring. I am not sure where they are finding all the nesting cavities because there isn't one box on this pond that I am aware of.

A mother Woody will encourage her young to leave the nest the day after hatching. That can entail a jump from a hole in a tree fifty feet or more up and a march of up to a mile to get to water. They are precocious, born with their eyes open and the ability to do many things on their own such as swim. This pond is hemmed in a by major highways and a railroad track, so there is a limit to where they can find suitable nesting cavities. They are finding them somewhere close, though, since there were quite a few clutches of chicks on the pond in the spring.

Orderly Chaos

I am not sure how professional nature photographers can make a living. Take a photograph like this. Except now substitute the seagulls with Whooping Cranes or Sandhill Cranes and the background for Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico or some other "exotic" location. What is the difference between the controlled chaos out there or right here near home? My answer is a few thousand dollars for airfare, hotels, rental car and meals. When you get back, you are several thousands dollars in the hole before you even attempt to sell a print.

I personally would just as soon stay close and film these birds. But you say, "They are nothing but stinkin' seagulls!" To which Winnie the Pooh would reply, "Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.." What is it that piques your interest in a photo like this? Is it the species of birds or the chaos? If the answer isn't the former, the photographer has gone to New Mexico for nothing.

Islands in the Sun

Birds standing in water, like these Lesser Yellowlegs, remind of little islands. I thought I would have more opportunity to photograph them this summer, but that didn't happen.

Here are three Killdeer on little islands. They always strike me as being very worried birds. It is strange how animals can embody certain qualities.

Sometimes I take a picture that is intended to be an ornament to a photo book — if I ever do one. Like a little postage stamp-sized image at the beginning of a chapter.

A pig in a puddle

Look at this drake! How in the world can he extract anything nutritious out of that mess? Maybe a better question is, How can he extract himself from that mess? He would have to either slog out or fly. Fortunately, Mallards can take off straight up.

The green on Green-winged Teal is not green — it is neon GREEN! I wouldn't be surprised if it was glow-in-the-dark too. Teal are the last ducks to migrate and the first to return. They are already back in this area. The two in back are males.

Fall Photo Ops

I enjoy photographing on the Patuxent because I can do two things at once: film the birds in the area and wait for the perfect light to photograph the Autumn foliage. The birds will always have you waiting so you may as well have a secondary goal as well. Okay, so I may have pumped up the colors a little.

Reflections like these are not available any time you want to film. Sun angle or position and water conditions (flat water and no wind) have to be just right. Not to mention the leaves are at peak for only a short period.

This photo and the next are very similar and were taken on the same morning.

This is the photo I was referring to in yesterday's post. Compare this image and the last and see if the fish splash doesn't add just the right ornament to the picture. I could not have timed that. It was caught at the perfect instant when the water was arced just right. The fact that it isn't centered in the frame is a bonus. My eye circles around the image and returns ineluctably to the splash.

It fulfills most all the major intentions I try to achieve with a photo. It has whimsey, a sense of innocence, peacefulness, and beauty. Without the splash, I think the photo would only exhibit the last two characteristics.

Garden Party

But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well.

You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya gotta please yourself.

                                                                   — Rick Nelson

It has taken me a long time to reach the point where I don't wish I had someone else's photographic talent. I am happy with my own. If you happen to like some of the photographs I create, great. If not, my daddy had a folksy southern saying that fits — if you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree.

The ponds I visited over the past winter continually amazed me with the variety of waterfowl they attracted. There are three species in this image, but I could have just as easily displayed a photo with five or six kinds of birds. You have to pick your shots because the backgrounds are not always picturesque at these ponds. I failed in that regard, but I was focused (no pun intended) on the beautiful banking moves of the upper three Canvasback Ducks.

The extreme northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay's waters is fairly shallow. It is ideal for growing sub aquatic vegetation (SAV), but in recent times the health of the plants have ebbed and flowed with the silt from heavy rain events. In good years, the grasses attract ducks by the thousands, especially Canvasback.

SAV in smaller ponds can also attract puddle ducks and divers and the competition may not be as fierce. One type of grass is so favored by American Wigeon, like the female in the picture, it has been given the name wigeon grass.

A Wigeon and an American Coot went into a pond — stop me if you've heard this one...

Sometimes, unintentionally, my timing has been just right to capture something I couldn't capture if I tried. In this photo, a coot is just emerging from a dive underwater and I happened to catch the moment. That has also happened surprisingly frequently with fish jumping out of the water. I can think of one photo I took which, in and of itself is nice, but a classic splash of a fish that I just happened to catch, really sets if off. I'll see if I can find it and post it...

I am a sucker for the choreographed landings of Canada Geese. They can be as artful as the Radio City Rockettes. Try as I may, for some reason I can not ignore a flock of geese going over. If I am out in the yard doing something, I have to stop and watch. I can't help myself.

My most memorable moment involving geese was not even a picture I could share, but a mental image. I was sitting on the porch one mild autumn morning on which there was a heavy fog over the region. I heard the complaints of a flock of geese growing louder and louder and could tell they were going to pass right over me. They flew over barely above the trees like half-seen ghosts in the fog. It is hard to describe how beautiful it was.

I caught this hawk (variety unknown) in a dive that I felt sure would end in the capture of some unsuspecting prey. To my astonishment, it wasn't hunting at all but was simply landing in a tree. Birds will often fly downward on the way to landing on a branch and turn upward just as they reach the branch so that their flight stalls and they land gently and almost effortlessly.

That is what this one was doing, except that it was doing it at very high speed and in an arc that took the entire height of the tree to slow it down.

It had so much forward momentum it was in the top of the tree before it slowed down enough to land in the top branches. It is the only time I have ever seen a hawk do such a thing.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves

Often, the way that I learn about something new is by investigating something I have seen that I don't understand. Being out in "the field," I almost constantly confront things that motivate me to look into them in more detail. Weather is one of them. I never knew there was anything like a fogbow, for example (think rainbow made of fog), until I experienced one while filming on the river.

On this particular morning, however, I saw a cloud formation that I had never seen before. I took the photo quite some time ago, but I didn't realize there was actually a name for the phenomenon. The corona around the sun exhibits this effect all the time — although a total eclipse is about the only time you could view it.

It is pretty much the same affect that cause waves over open water where the wind over water results in excessive turbulence. In the atmosphere, the wind above the tops of the clouds is moving much faster than at the base, which causes them to develop a rolling motion.

It probably is more common than we realize, but cloud cover masks the phenomenon in many cases. The atmospheric condition is named after scientists Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who discovered the process that causes the formations.

Hunting Season

A flock of Gadwall parachuting into a pond

Fall has returned and with it, the sound of gunners gunning. I personally could not shoot waterfowl, but I don't have a problem with those that do. Opening day on the river is loud with shotguns going off all up and down the shoreline and geese complaining and looking for safe haven.

I only ask for two things: clean kills and don't just throw them in a trashcan when you are done hunting. That use to bug the heck out of me when I would see a fisherman who didn't want to clean the fish simply throw them away. It made me wonder why catch and release never occurred to the selfish soul.

Hunters contribute much more than most people generally realize to the conservation of bird species and wetlands. They don't just take, but give a lot in return. They are knowledgeable about the ecological issues that plague modern society, something from which we could all take a lesson.

If you are interested in filming ducks and geese, I have found that a good place to get information on their whereabouts is Ducks Unlimited. I signed up for emails and hunters from all over the region tell me what they are seeing. I may not go where they are hunting, but it indicates what species have arrived in the area and what I can expect to find when I go out to take pictures.

Next time you see one, thank a hunter that you aren't overrun by Canada Geese or whitetail deer.