Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on June 13, 2015| 5 Comments »
Shortly after dawn one morning last week, I encountered a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) that seemed to be pensively contemplating the new day. He glanced in my direction as I took a few shots, but remained in place as I continued on my way, both of us lost in our thoughts.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on June 7, 2015| 12 Comments »
What could possibly be a better way to start a day than seeing a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)? Seeing two of them.
I spotted these eagles at Huntley Meadows Park at about 6:45 yesterday morning. Being an early bird helps me to capture the early birds like these.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Huntley Meadows Park, ninja, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on June 5, 2015| 6 Comments »
Like a ninja assassin, the Green Heron (Butorides virescens) moved slowly and stealthily forward, completely focused on an unseen prey. I watched and waited. After what seemed like an eternity, the heron relaxed. Whatever had attracted its attention was gone.
The heron was left empty-handed. Fortunately, I was more lucky and departed with this cool portrait of him in his natural environment.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on June 3, 2015| 8 Comments »
Green Herons seem so intense most the time when I seem them, standing motionless in one spot, ready for a strike. What do they for relaxation or for fun?
Early this Monday, I caught a Green Heron (Butorides virescens) in some unguarded moments and learned some of its secrets. Who knew that Green Herons like to dance and to sing? They also appear to meditate, centering themselves as they start their days.
It’s not easy being green.
Practicing for a part in Riverdance
Anyone want to join me for show tunes?
Early morning reverie
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Barn Swallow, Canon 50D, Hirundo rustica, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 31, 2015| 8 Comments »
At this time of the year many birds seem to hide behind the leaves of the trees, but this Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) was cooperative early one recent morning and perched at several spots out in the open. Click on any of the images to see them all in slide show mode.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Hooded Merganser, Hooded Merganser duck, Hooded Merganser ducklings, Huntley Meadows Park, Lophodytes cucullatus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 28, 2015| 9 Comments »
Shortly after sunrise at Huntley Meadows Park on Tuesday, a mother Hooded Merganser duck (Lophodytes cucullatus) checked on her seven babies and got them ready to start the day. I don’t know if the little family spent the night on the log, but it was probably a good idea to get moving before the numerous snapping turtles woke up. Most of the babies seem to be paying attention to the Mama in the first shot, though the one on the end seems to be daydreaming or is distracted.
A short while later the family dropped into the water and started to swim away. This second shot is my favorite one from an artistic perspective. I just love the interplay of the light and the shadows.
As the Merganser family continued to swim, it got tougher and tougher to track them amid all of the vegetation growing in the pond. Only occasionally would I get an unobstructed glimpse of them. I managed to get most of the family in this shot. One of the ducklings was a bit ahead of the group, perhaps the adventurous one on the end of the log in the first shot.
When they reached a spot that Mama Merganser considered to be safe, all of the babies began to stick their heads under the water. I don’t know if they were bathing or playing or if this was a lesson in fishing. Whatever the case, the mother duck remained vigilant.
It’s at moments like this that I regret that the father Merganser does not stay around to help in raising the ducklings. It would sure ease the burden on the Mama and would enhance the chances for survival for the cute little babies.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Osprey with fish, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 27, 2015| 10 Comments »
This osprey’s glare in my direction suggests that he is NOT willing to share the fish that he worked so hard to catch. (I already posted a shot of this osprey munching on the fish, but additional photos showing its facial expressions seemed too good not to share as well.)
Sometimes, especially when I am in a hurry, I will quickly look through my recent photos, choose a single one I really like, and write a short post. That’s exactly what I did with the initial Freshly Caught Fish posting a few days ago. I knew that I had gotten some good shots of the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), who was so cooperative that I was able to set up my tripod, but I knew it was going to take a fair amount of time to look through the photos. It was nice to be able to use the tripod, but I learned how tough it is to shoot almost straight up with a long telephoto zoom—I was crouching and on my knees as I sought to look through the viewfinder.
I now have sorted through my photos from that morning and selected a few more that show the osprey as he was eating and as he was sending me unambiguous messages.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 26, 2015| 13 Comments »
The sun was barely up, but this little Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was already busy, trying to find something to eat for breakfast. Alas, I didn’t see the heron catch anything this time before it moved out of sight. (If you want to see a fun shot of a Green Heron looking directly at a frog that it had just captured, check out my post from July 2012 entitled Not Seeing Eye to Eye.)
Green Herons are a lot smaller than the Great Blue Herons that I see fairly often and quite a bit more elusive. This heron seemed to be just waking up and wandered about a little on the muddy edge of a former beaver pond before entering the water. That is how I was able to get the second shot that shows the heron’s legs.
I was probably at the limits of my ability to take photos in limited light. I was shooting at ISO 1600, about as high as I dared go with my somewhat dated Canon 50D. As is usually the case, I was using aperture-preferred mode with a selected setting of f/8. What I didn’t realize until afterwards was how slow the shutter speed was—as low as 1/20 sec for these shots, quite a bit slower than optimal for a focal length of 500mm on my 150-600mm lens. Focusing in the limited light was a little slow, but seemed to be pretty accurate. Usually I don’t dwell quite so much on the technical aspects of my shots, but I know that some folks have questions about the capabilities of the Tamron 150-600mm lens in low light and wanted to share my experiences (which are mostly positive).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Osprey with fish, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 25, 2015| 19 Comments »
There is nothing quite like the taste of a freshly caught fish and this Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) seemed to be devouring its breakfast with gusto early on Saturday morning at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Baby photography, Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas platyrhynchos, Canon 50D, ducklings, Huntley Meadows Park, mallard, mallard duck, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 24, 2015| 6 Comments »
Make way for ducklings! Yesterday I finally saw my first Mallard baby ducks of the season at Huntley Meadows Park. I have spotted Canada Geese goslings multiple times this month and they are already growing quite large.
The ducklings look so small and fragile and the Mallard Mom (Anas platyrhynchos) seemed to be doing her best to keep them tightly bunched together as they made their way slowly through the shallow waters of the marsh. When they paused for a moment, though, some of the ducklings wanted to explore their surroundings. When I zoomed in for a close-up shot of the babies, one of them wandered out of the frame, leaving only four to be featured.
This Mom is going to be really busy raising and protecting these little ones.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Hooded Merganser, Hooded Merganser duck, Huntley Meadows Park, Lophodytes cucullatus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 23, 2015| 9 Comments »
Unlike some other species of birds, Hooded Merganser ducks (Lophodytes cucullatus) don’t seems to sit on their eggs continuously. They will often lay them in nesting boxes and periodically check on them, perhaps adding more eggs to the nest.
I took this first shot earlier today at Huntley Meadows Park as a female Hooded Merganser was getting ready to eventually enter a nesting box. When I first spotted the female duck, she was standing on top of the nesting box. During previous springs I learned that this was a sign that she had eggs in the nesting box and that eventually she would fly into it. So I waited and waited, hoping to catch the moment.
It may look like she is actually preparing to enter the box, but in fact she had just stepped off of the roof and was gliding to the ground. Unfortunately, she dropped behind a virtual wall of vegetation and I could not see her when she lifted off from the ground and flew straight into the box and I missed that shot.
Here are a few shots of the female Hooded Merganser as she paced back and forth on the roof of the nesting box, peering to the right and to the left to makes sure that all was safe before she entered the box.
As I was doing some research on Hooded Merganser ducks, I came across a blog from Lee Rentz Photography that includes a video from inside a nesting box of a Hooded Merganser. Be sure to check it out.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 21, 2015| 5 Comments »
I am thrilled that I was able to get a shot of a Great Blue Heron triumphantly holding a freshly caught fish and I followed my initial instinct to post that photo. However, I also managed to capture a sequence of shots of the action that led to that culminating moment that I really like that I thought would be fun to share.
In this first shot, the heron has just made the strike and has plunged its head deep into the water. I am not sure why the heron extended its impressive wings like this, but suspect it was either to generate greater force or to maintain stability.
When I first spotted the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), it was obviously focused on finding a fish. When it bent over like this, I suspected that the heron had already spotted one and was tracking it.
Suddenly the heron turned to the side and made the strike that I showed in the first shot. Some of the herons that I have observed in the past have been amazing in their ability to catch fish, but I have seen others, especially the young ones, that would strike repeatedly at branches and floating leaves. As a result, I knew that success was not guarantee and I waited to see how the heron had done. In this next shot, the heron’s head is just starting to reemerge from the water. At that moment it certainly knew if it had a fish in its grasp, but I still was in the dark.
At last the heron lifted its head a bit more and I could see that indeed it had caught a fish. I really like this shot shows the little vortex that was created in the water as the fish is pulled up into the air.
Now, after the fact, it’s easy for me to sit back and analyze what the heron was doing. During the brief moments when I was taking the shots, it was all I could do to concentrate on keeping the heron centered in the viewfinder and hoping that the buffer in my camera would not fill up too quickly as I fired away in burst mode.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 20, 2015| 6 Comments »
Early one morning last week at Huntley Meadows Park, I watched and waited as a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) sought to catch some breakfast. He was successful and I left the scene equally satisfied when I captured this image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 17, 2015| 5 Comments »
The marsh is especially beautiful early in the morning, as birds like this Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) welcome the first rays of the rising sun. The water is still, reflecting the glory of the new day, and a sense of peace overwhelms me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, juvenile Bald Eagle, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 16, 2015| 4 Comments »
In the early morning hours above Huntley Meadows Park, all kinds of birds are flying about, like this immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) that I spotted yesterday.
A year ago, I probably would have guessed that this was a hawk, but my identification skills have improved somewhat and I can tell this is an eagle. Given that it takes about five years for a Bald Eagle to mature, I’d guess that this one is about two to three years old, though I defer to more expert birdwatchers on this point.
As you can probably tell, the eagle was moving from right to left as I tracked it over the treetops. I was shooting over a small pond at a pretty good distance in early morning light that was not yet bright, so my ISO was cranked up a bit. I especially like the shots that include the trees. Although I will try to photograph an eagle every time I see one, I think it is a nice extra when I manage to include part of the surroundings in the shot.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Mother's Day, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 10, 2015| 8 Comments »
Happy Mother’s Day to Moms everywhere, who loved us and supported us as we took steps toward independence, all the while keeping a watchful eye over us.
Thanks especially to my Mom, who is now in heaven.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, Canon 50D, eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 8, 2015| 20 Comments »
This past Monday was a wonderful day for eagles. In addition to the young eagle whose photos I posted earlier, I also managed to capture these images of a mature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) perched on a dead tree in the marsh.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 5, 2015| 5 Comments »
I was late in reacting when the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) took off from its perch and I was pretty sure that I had not gotten any decent shots of its departure. Consequently, I skimmed quickly through the shots during my initial review and none of them jumped out at me.
After I had done this morning’s posting, I had a few minutes before I had to depart for work and decided to review the images again. I was surprised to find this shot of the young eagle in flight, shortly after he had pushed off from the tree. It’s reasonably sharp and the wings are in a decent position, so I decided to post the photo as a complement to the first image that showed the eagle completing a difficult landing.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 5, 2015| 10 Comments »
No matter what else happened yesterday, I knew it was already an amazing day when I captured this shot of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) early in the morning at Huntley Meadows Park.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on May 1, 2015| 13 Comments »
I love the morning light as it gradually illuminates different parts of the natural world. This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) had turned its head toward the rising sun and the light was shining on its white face while other parts of its body were still hidden in the shadows.
In the limited light, I used a pretty slow shutter speed (1/80 sec) to keep from having to raise my ISO too high and I was able to get reasonably sharp shots when the heron was stationary. However, when the heron took off, I had a substantial amount of motion blur, as you can see in the final two shots.
I usually lead my postings with my favorite shot, but I had real trouble with this posting trying to decided which one to use. Should I choose one of the sharpest shots or should I go with one of the “artsy” blurred ones? I like different aspects of all four of these images and vacillated for quite some time before deciding to lead with the shot of the heron with his head tilted at an interesting angle.
Did I make a good choice?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spr, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, luck versus skill, red-winged blackbird, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 23, 2015| 16 Comments »
Sometimes accidents are good. I certainly didn’t expect this male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) to move when I pressed my camera’s shutter release, but I managed to catch the bird in a much more interesting pose than the one I was originally trying to capture.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Black Vulture, Canon 50D, Coragyps atratus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, vulture on April 21, 2015| 4 Comments »
I know that vultures don’t really stalk live prey, but when this Black Vulture leaned forward from its perch on a dead tree, it sure looked like it was following something on the ground.
Most of the vultures that I see at my local marsh are Turkey Vultures, which have a distinctive red head, but occasionally I will also spot Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) like this one. I was in a remote area of the park searching for dragonflies when this vulture flew in my general direction and decided to perch for a while high on a nearby tree.
Initially the bird spent some time grooming itself, but then it assumed the pose that you see in this image. I tried to move closer to get a better shot and eventually I was almost underneath the tree. As I looked at my images on the computer, I initially thought that I might have photographed an immature Turkey Vulture, which also has a dark head, but I’m pretty sure this is a Black Vulture, because of its short tail.
When I was doing a little research on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, one of my favorite resources for birds, I learned that Black Vultures often hang out with Turkey Vultures to compensate for their weaker sense of smell. “To find food they soar high in the sky and keep an eye on the lower-soaring Turkey Vultures. When a Turkey Vulture’s nose detects the delicious aroma of decaying flesh and descends on a carcass, the Black Vulture follows close behind.”
In addition to its pose, I was struck by the dead-looking eyes of this vulture, which I can’t help but find a little creepy. I am not really paranoid, but somehow I am happy that it had not fixed those eyes on me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 11, 2015| 7 Comments »
In some of my photos, the ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) look really majestic, but in these two shots, the osprey looks almost like a cartoon caricature to me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, female Red-winged Blackbird, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 9, 2015| 14 Comments »
My life was much simpler before I started to photograph birds. I naively assumed that all Red-winged Blackbirds were black and had red wings. There is no way in the world that I would have even guessed that the bird in this photograph is a female Red-winged Blackbird, but I know now that’s what it is.
With experience comes wisdom, perhaps, but I generally feel more confused than wise when it comes to identifying birds. There are so many variables to consider, including the geographic location, the time of the year, the age of the bird, and, of course, its gender. Sure, there are lots of resources available over which to pore, but I’m often left with a certain degree of uncertainty about a bird’s identification. Apparently I am not alone, because I have overheard heated discussions among experience birds trying to identify a distant bird that they can barely see in their spotting scopes.
Female Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) are amazingly beautiful and I would love to feature them more often in this blog, but I find them to be unusually difficult to photograph. Unlike their male counterparts, who are visible and vocal to the point of being a bit obnoxious, the females tend to spend their time pecking about industriously in the undergrowth, rarely coming out into the open.
I was pleased to be able to get this mostly unobstructed shot of this female blackbird recently as she was singing in the rain. If you look closely, you can see a series of raindrops beading up on her back. Other birds may have been seeking shelter from the rain, but she kept working.
As the foliage reappears on the trees and bushes, it’s going to get tougher and tougher for me to spot birds. I’ll still be trying to photograph them for a while longer until I switch to macro mode and focus more on insects and flowers, which have their own identification challenges.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, osprey in action, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 8, 2015| 16 Comments »
Earlier this week I watched a pair of Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) at my local marsh circling about in search of a meal and captured a sequence of shots of a successful effort. I have previously seen ospreys flying with fish in their talons, but I had never actually seen an osprey catch a fish.
The first shot, my favorite, shows the osprey flying away with its prize, just after it plucked the fish out of the water. Initially the osprey spotted the fish (photo 2) and arrested its forward motion to prepare to dive (photo 3). I tried to track the osprey as it dove, but it dropped so quickly that all I got in the frame was the tail end of the bird. It looks like ospreys dive head first toward the water and then at the last minute bring their legs forward so that they hit the water feet first.
The fourth photo gives you an idea of how forcefully the osprey hit the water. It made a loud splash and much of its body looks to be submerged. The final shot shows the osprey emerging from the water, using its impressive wings to generate an amazing amount of power.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 6, 2015| 7 Comments »
Most of the time I try to fill the frame of my camera with my wildlife subjects, but sometimes it’s nice when they are part of a larger landscape, like this shot of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in the rain from last Friday.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, rain, red-winged blackbird, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 5, 2015| 16 Comments »
Sometimes I’m out with my camera even when it’s raining, which lets me capture shots like this Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) that I spotted this past Friday at Huntley Meadows Park.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 4, 2015| 6 Comments »
Eventually the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that I featured yesterday decided to fly away, with its modest fish still tightly clutched in its talons. I thought that the bird was going to consume the fish while perched, but perhaps the osprey prefers to lunch in privacy or needs to share the prize with its mate.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Osprey with fish, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on April 3, 2015| 11 Comments »
When an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) flew in my direction this morning at Huntley Meadows Park and landed in a tree, I had no idea that it was clutching a small fish. It was raining and I was trying to keep my gear dry, but the osprey was so close that I knew I had to try to get some shots. In fact, I was so close that when the bird opened its wings, I couldn’t fit the entire wingspan within the frame.
I noticed the fish in the talons of the right foot only later when I was reviewing the shots on my computer.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Aix sponsa, Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, colors of spring, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, wood duck on April 2, 2015| 7 Comments »
This past Monday at Huntley Meadows Park I was thrilled to see one of my favorite ducks, the colorful male Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), weaving its way with its mate among the trees in one of the flooded area of the marsh.
This was one of the few times when I have actually had the opportunity to observes a Wood Duck swimming around—normally they take to the air as soon as they sense my presence.
The natural world is gradually moving away from the monochromatic tones of the winter to the brighter colors of spring, a transformation that I welcome with open arms.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Sphyrapicus varius, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on March 31, 2015| 7 Comments »
Bird identification should be easier. Once again I have photographed a bird and I am not sure of its identity. I am confident that it is a woodpecker, but beyond that, doubts begin to creep in and none of the pictures in my identification guide really match the bird in my photos.
The woodpecker is a lot bigger than the Downy Woodpeckers that I frequently see, but smaller than the Pileated Woodpeckers that I see less often. The black-and-white pattern on its back seems different from any that I have seen before. In some of the photos, I detect a little bit of red just above the bill, especially in the last image.
So what is it? Well, if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it might be an immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius).
I’d welcome assistance from more experienced birders in identifying my mystery woodpecker.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 