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Santa bird

Posted in Birds, Christmas, commentary, Humor, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on December 20, 2012| 1 Comment »

It’s almost Christmas. Decorations are visible everywhere and all the radio stations are playing non-stop Christmas music. As I am driving to work, I am reminded of (and sometimes burst into singing) the lyrics of Silver Bells, which include the line, “Strings of street lights, even stoplights, blink a bright red and green, as the shoppers rush home with their treasures.”

Even in nature I am reminded of Christmas. Despite the title of this blog posting, this bird is not called a “Santa bird,” but I enjoy making up names of the creatures that I photograph. Usually I do so when I don’t know their real names, but in this case I know that the bird is a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis).

His prominent white “beard” and his round belly, though, remind me of Santa Claus, and I can’t help but smile. I recall some of the words of the famous poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, “He had a broad face and a little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.”

Soon it will be Christmas day.

Santa bird

Santa bird

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Another landing

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on December 19, 2012| 2 Comments »

A couple of days ago I featured a photo of Canada Geese coming in for an early morning water landing in a posting I called Photo Finish. So many people made positive comments about the photo that it prompted me to take another look at the other photos from that morning. I played around with one of them and decided to post the result.

The overall effect in this image is similar to the previous photo, but in this one you can see some reflections in the water. Tonally, it has more brown in it.  It’s a bit muddy in appearance, but it still conveys the sense of motion of the geese in flight and the panning stripped away all of the excess details in the background. I recommend that you click on the image to get a higher resolution view.

Coming in for a landing

Coming in for a landing

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Lady cardinal

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on December 19, 2012| 6 Comments »

Male Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) are featured in photographs much more frequently than their female counterparts. In fact, last week a male cardinal was the star of my blog entry entitled Cardinal Directions. The male cardinal is so bright and conspicuous that he is hard to miss, like a song played with the volume cranked up.

Sometimes, though, my eyes prefer a more delicate, refined beauty and at those moments I find the look of the lady cardinal more to my tastes. There is still some bright red coloration, but it serves as a tasteful accent against the warm brown tones of the rest of the body.

I usually have trouble getting clear shots of female cardinals, who seem to prefer the inside parts of bushes. In this case, I managed to get a mostly unobstructed view and the green of the background blurred out pretty well.

The position of her body is interesting too. It looks like she was facing forward and turned her head to look at me. Perhaps, though, I caught her in the midst of her morning exercise routine—the pose looks like the trunk twists that are done in aerobics classes. Cardinals (like most of us) are not immune to putting on some extra weight during the holiday season, it seems, and she may be trying to stay toned and fit.

Lady Cardinal

Lady Cardinal

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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American Tree Sparrow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on December 18, 2012| 4 Comments »

Thia little bird that I photographed this past weekend is not in a tree, but I am pretty sure that he is an American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea). The reddish eye stripe and the two-toned bill made this identification easier than usual for me. This sparrow was amazingly active, pecking at a variety of plants close to the ground.

Why is he called a Tree Sparrow if he’s not in a tree? According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the birds were misleadingly named by European settlers reminded of Eurasian Tree Sparrows back home.  American Tree Sparrows are in fact ground birds that forage on the ground and nest on the ground.

Has anyone ever told you that you eat like a bird? If so, I hope they weren’t referring to this sparrow. American Tree Sparrows need to take in about 30 percent of their body weight in food and a similar percentage in water each day, according to the Cornell Lab website.

American Tree Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Photo finish

Posted in Art, Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 17, 2012| 22 Comments »

Do you ever find yourself really liking some of your photos that are full of technical flaws?

As a non-professional, I have had more than my fair share of blurry images, missed subjects, out-of-kilter compositions, and poor exposures. Many of them are deleted as soon as I view them on the back of the camera. Sometimes, though, the mistakes yield such interesting results that I can’t bear to delete them.

I arrived at the beaver lodge at my local marshland before the sun had fully risen one morning this past weekend, hoping to see the beavers in action. I had my camera set on ISO 400 and it was wide open at F4, with the mode set for aperture priority. I hadn’t yet set up my tripod, which I was hoping to use, because I anticipated relatively slow shutter speeds.

All of the sudden I hear the sound of geese approaching and it quickly became clear that they were coming in for a landing in the beaver pond. Without really thinking, I panned the camera and started shooting as I tried to follow the geese as they approached the water. Most of the photos were totally unusable. There was so little light that my camera chose a shutter speed of 1/6 of a second. Even with image stabilization, that’s too slow for handheld photos.

There was one image, however, that I really liked. The head of one goose is relatively in focus and another goose is visible (although out of focus) in the foreground. The background is blurred from my panning action. Somehow it reminds me of the photos they used to show of the finishes of races in which photos had to be developed to determine who crossed the finish line first. In this case, the geese seem to be leaning forward towards an invisible finish line in the same way that sprinters do.

Clearly this is not a great (or even good) photo, but I like it, and maybe others will find it interesting too.

Photo finish

Photo finish

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Posing duck

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on December 17, 2012| 2 Comments »

Most of the mallard ducks that I encountered today were busily foraging for food. One female mallard, however, had found a prime location on a mossy log in the pond opposite the beaver lodge and spent a lot of time preening her feathers.

It may have been my imagination, but she seemed to realize that she had an audience and began posing for me. Periodically she would even glance coyly in my direction (or so it seemed) to confirm that I was still watching her. As for the male mallards that would swim by from time to time—she ignored them completely.

Shy duck

Shy duck

Looking back

Looking back

Ready for my profile shot

Ready for my profile shot

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Simply a duck in flight

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on December 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This morning I am in the mood for simplicity, so I am posting a single photo of a male Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) in flight. I like the geometric shapes in the image and how the light illuminates one wing, while keeping the other in the shadows. There is some color, but it doesn’t overwhelm the eyes. The photo is a simple one of a common subject—sometimes I need to slow down and see the beauty in simple things.

duck1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hyperactive little woodpecker

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2012| 3 Comments »

Never seeming to tire, a very active Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) yesterday was moving back and forth and up and down the stalks of cattails and other vegetation. I got tired just watching him as he performed some amazing acrobatic feats. The woodpecker would start at the bottom of each stalk and would gradually work his way up, grabbing whatever insects might be hidden inside. Many of the stalks seemed to thin to support the weight of a bird, but Downy Woodpeckers are not only small, about 5.5-6.7 inches long (14-17 cm), they are also really light at 0.7-1 oz (21-28 g), according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

I managed to get a few good shots of a male Downy Woodpecker showing some details of the bird. The first one includes a good view of his claws and the second one shows his beak, which is still partially imbedded in a piece of a stalk that had broken free.

downy2_blog

downy_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sparrows in the water

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on December 16, 2012| 8 Comments »

Birds seemed to be everywhere yesterday, foraging for food in the water, on dry land, 0r sometimes in between the. The latter was the case for two little brown birds, pecking for food in the still-green vegetation in the shallow marsh. Sometimes it seemed like they would stop and drink the water or gaze intently into the water, as though fascinated by their own reflection.

I am still not very good at identifying most birds on the spot, but my research skills are improving and I am pretty confident that these birds are Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Gradually I am starting to see the distinguishing characteristics, like the color on the top of the head, the markings on the breast, and the shape and size of the beak.

This growing sense of the broad diversity among birds serves to magnify their beauty, as I see them as individuals, not merely as nameless little brown birds. Who knows, maybe birds appreciate it if you can call them by their names.

drink_blog

bird_green_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Cardinal directions

Posted in Birds, Christmas, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on December 15, 2012| 13 Comments »

The bright red plumage of the Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) reminded me today that Christmas is almost here. I guess it is such an obvious association that National Geographic featured the cardinal on the cover of its “Holiday” catalog. Cliché or not, I can’t help but smile whenever my eyes catch sight of a cardinal and somehow my spirits are lifted, particularly when the weather is gray and gloomy as it was early this morning.

Here are a couple of shots of the same cardinal that may appear to be identical. However, if you look closer, you will notice that the cardinal has his head turned in a slightly different direction. In the first one, the cardinal was looking right at me. There seems to be something more personal about our interaction when our eyes meet. He looks a little like he is growing weary of posing for me, but is patiently waiting for me to be finished.

cardinal2_blog

In the second photo (which was actually shot before the first one), the cardinal is looking off into the distance, alone with his thoughts and not yet aware  of the intruder with the camera. In some ways this photo seems to capture him in a more natural, unposed position.

cardinal_blog

At certain moments I like the second image more than the first, but most of the time I prefer to see eye-to-eye with a subject.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Red-Shouldered Hawk

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on December 15, 2012| 3 Comments »

It was nice today to get back to nature after a week in the city of Vienna, Austria. Still a little jet-lagged, I got up early and headed out to Huntley Meadows Park on a cold frosty morning. There are still lots of migrating geese noisily coming and going through the park, and a smaller number of ducks too.  Familiar cardinals, blackbirds, and sparrow were active today as well.

One real highlight for me today was having a hawk fly overhead. I’ve been told that there are Red-tailed Hawks, Red-Shouldered Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, and Sharp-Shinned Hawks at the park, and I had no idea what kind of hawk it was that I managed to photograph. I saw him land in a tree across a small field and I was able to get some shots of him there. Neither of these two photos is super sharp (the light was not good and they are cropped, especially the one with the hawk in the tree), but I am happy to have been able to capture images of a beautiful, powerful bird. I think that this is probably a Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), although I am not one hundred percent sure on the identification.

I hope that I will be able to see the hawks in action this winter (and possibly some bald eagles that are occasionally sighted here too).

Hawk in flight

Hawk in flight

Hawk in tree

Hawk in tree

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Vultures in a tree

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on December 7, 2012| 5 Comments »

I suddenly realized that all my photos of the Black Vultures that I posted were close-up shots. Here’s a shot of what two of them looked like when they were roosting in a tree. I really like the look of the tree, especially the branch on the right side. The sky was almost white today and the two vultures were virtually silhouettes. It’s kind of a creepy image—maybe I need to save it for Halloween next year.

vultures_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Black Vulture roosting

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2012| 6 Comments »

Earlier today I posted a photo of a colorful cardinal to counteract the gloominess of the day. Here is an alternative if you prefer instead to relish the grayness of the day—an image of a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus ) roosting in a dead tree.

vulture3_blog

It was a damp, cold day today as I was walking through the marshland. I happened to look up and saw a couple of large birds perched in a dead tree. At first I thought they might be wild turkeys, but when I looked at them more carefully I realized that they were Black Vultures. Previously I had seen them soaring through the air and thought they were quite beautiful, with magnificent wingspans. When you see them up close, however, “beautiful” is not an adjective that springs to mind. To be generous, you might say that they look “distinctive” or “interesting.”

vulture1_blog

Why were they hanging around? I had no idea until I talked with some folks at the information desk in the visitor center. Apparently there is a dead deer in a nearby area and the vultures have been feeding on its carcass. I guess the vultures were resting in the trees in between meals.

vulture2_blogI processed each of these images a little differently, trying to compensate for the fact that there was not that much light,  which forced me to deliberately underexpose the photos. I think I like the first one best, the one that I desaturated almost to the point of making it black and white, although I like some aspects of the other two images as well.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bright color on a dreary day

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2012| 5 Comments »

It’s a cloudy gray day. It started out with rain and the weather has improved only marginally. I feel a need for some bright colors, so I am sharing a shot I took this past weekend of a male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in a bush with bright red berries. Unlike most photos that I have taken of a cardinal, his eye is visible—normally it blends in with the black mask of his face.

The bright red color seems festive to me and reminds me that Christmas is almost here.

cardinal_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Song sparrow on cattail

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 6, 2012| 8 Comments »

Sparrows generally fall into the general category of “little brown birds” for me and I get frustrated when I try to identify them. I decided, however, that I need to learn more about birds and attempted to identify this little bird that perched atop a cattail and provided me with a photo opportunity this past weekend. After some research on-line, I am pretty confident that this is a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and I like the way the image captured the beauty of the bird and the fuzziness of the cattails.

I may be wrong about the identification, but my effort has at least caused me to look more closely at the coloration and markings of the birds. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be getting a bird guide (and maybe even some binoculars) soon.

song_sparrow_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Good day for vultures

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on December 6, 2012| 3 Comments »

Monday was a good day for vultures. It was warm and sunny and there must have been lots of thermal updrafts on which to soar. For a short while, a mixed group of turkey vultures and black vultures circles over my head and I couldn’t help but admire again their impressive wingspans. Remembering  the response of my fellow photographer and blogger Lyle Krahn to a previous posting I did on vultures, I made sure that I moved around from time to time. He commented, “If I saw that many vultures overhead, I’d be checking my pulse!”

The lighting was pretty interesting that day, for it illuminated one wing more than another, giving the birds an asymmetrical look. I decided to post a similar shot of each of the two types of vultures so that you can see some of the differences between the two.

Turkey vulture

Turkey vulture

Black vulture

Black vulture

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Bluebird in December

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 4, 2012| 11 Comments »

I always associate bluebirds with happiness, and I am invariably happy when I see one. There is something exceptionally beautiful about the combination of colors, the brilliant royal blue and the warm reddish brown, especially now as winter approaches and the other colors seem so muted.

I grew up with the Wizard of Oz and remember almost all of the lyrics of the the song Over the Rainbow, sung in the movie by Judy Garland. In the song, bluebirds are one of the symbols of hope. “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh why can’t I? If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why can’t I?”

Well, I wasn’t beyond the rainbow this past weekend, but I did see this little Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), perched on a small tree in the middle of a field. He was a bit far away so I had to crop the images, which are a bit soft in focus. Nevertheless, I am sure you will agree that his beauty shines through.

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why can’t I?

Eastern bluebird

Eastern bluebird

Bluebird in a tree

Bluebird in a tree

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bird on a little branch

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 2, 2012| 7 Comments »

What is the main subject of this photo? I know that when I took it, I was intently focusing on the little brown bird. When I pulled the image up on my computer screen and cropped it, however, I became much more interested in the composition. The blurry background with faintly visible trees and the little branches of tree on which the bird has hooked his feet suddenly became of equal importance to me as the bird itself. I find the pose of the bird interesting, but I think its interest is magnified by the simple setting.

What do you think?

Brown bird on little branch

Brown bird on little branch

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Green-winged Teal

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on November 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) are the smallest of the North American ducks, according to duck.org (yes, that’s really the website), but I find them to be exceptionally beautiful. Their diminutive size and their predilection for congregating at the far reaches of the little pond where I have been photographing ducks have combined to make it really challenging to get good images of them.

Green-winged Teals are dabbling (rather than diving) ducks and they prefer shallow ponds to open water, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. As the weather has gotten colder, they may have migrated out of my area now, so I am posting some of the best shots I have of them. I had been holding off, hoping I might get some better photos. The photos at least give you an idea of the duck’s overall  appearance and the first photo shows you the green feathers responsible for the its name.

Male Green-winged Teal swimming

Male Green-winged Teal swimming

Green-winged Teal with bushes

Green-winged Teal with bushes

Pair of male Green-winged Teals

Pair of male Green-winged Teals

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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No piece of wood is too small

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on November 28, 2012| 12 Comments »

Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) are so small and light that they can perch almost anywhere. I was little surprised, however, when I looked down into the water of the marsh and saw a Downy Woodpecker on a very small piece of wood that was jutting out just a little above the surface of the water. I had never before seen a woodpecker that close to water level.

Downy Woodpecker just above the marsh water

The branch was small, just big enough for him to relax, but the woodpecker was not there to rest—he was there to work. There doesn’t seem like there is much room for him to maneuver, but somehow he got into position and was soon hammering away at that little piece of wood. I was concerned that the vibration might loosen the branch and cause him to tumble into the water, but that didn’t happen.

No piece of wood is too small

I guess that if you are a small woodpecker, almost any piece of wood is fair game—size does not matter.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Immature male blackbird

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , on November 28, 2012| 5 Comments »

If I were judging from behavior, I’d have to say that most male Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) seem immature. They remind me a lot of teenagers—they are hyperactive and prone to attention-seeking behavior; they are extremely loud; they like to hang out with their friends (who are all dressed the same); and they appear to suffer from a kind of moody teenage angst.

In this case, however, I am referring to the appearance of this Red-winged Blackbird that I photographed this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA. At first glance, I was pretty sure that this was a female Red-winged Blackbird. I’ve gradually gotten used to the notion that the female of the species is not black nor does not have red wings, but is still called a Red-winged Blackbird.

Immature male Red-winged Blackbird ?

When I looked a little closer, though, I could see a small patch of red on the upper part of the wing, where the adult male has the red and yellow patch of color. I’ve read in a number of places that male Red-winged Blackbirds start out looking like females and darken as they mature. I confess to being a little confused in identifying this bird? Sometimes I think it is a female with a touch of color, but most often I think it is an immature male? What do you think?

In any case, I like this informal portrait of the bird, who seems relaxed in this angular pose. A minute or so later, the bird turned to the side and assumed a more formal, upright pose. You couldn’t ask for a more cooperative subject. It was almost like the bird realized that I was thinking of it as “immature” and wanted to demonstrate that it could be serious and dignified.

Immature? I can be serious.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Facing the world together

Posted in Birds, Inspiration, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , on November 27, 2012| 3 Comments »

As I mentioned in another post, Monday there was ice on the small ponds that a week before had been full of migrating ducks. The ducks were all gone, it seemed. As I was passing the beaver lodge, however, I notice a small bit of bright orange on a log across the beaver pond. I looked through my telephoto lens and realized that what I had seen were the feet of a female duck, perched on the log that jutted out into the water. She was so well camouflaged that I almost missed see her. When I moved to one side, I noticed a second duck, a male, right behind them. They were huddled together, with their heads tucked in between their wings, resting and sharing their body warmth on a cold morning. Why were they alone? Had they become separated from a larger group? Were they on their way to another destination?

There was something very tender, almost intimate about this scene, about the closeness of this duck couple. The environment might be hostile and threatening, but they could face it together—at least they had each other.

Facing the world together

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bird on a fence

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , on November 26, 2012| 6 Comments »

I am getting better at bird identification, but there are so many little brown birds that it seems virtually impossible to distinguish one species from another. That doesn’t hinder me from attempting to take photos of them, generally with little success, because the little brown birds seem to like to stay in the middle of bushes.

Today, however, I was able to take a clear shot of one of the little birds (perhaps some kind of sparrow) when it perched on the top of a blue metal fence. I got close enough to capture a lot of the texture of the feathers (you should click on the photo to see it in higher resolution) and I found an angle to shoot from that left a uncluttered background streaked with light blue and brown. Even the fence itself is a pleasing element of the photo, providing a touch of color and geometry.

I don’t know why, but a number of my recent photos have been graphic and simple in their approach. My eye seems to be framing my photos that way and I am pretty pleased with the results.

Little brown bird on a fence

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Morning Mourning Dove

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2012| 3 Comments »

One frosty morning this past weekend as I was was walking on a bike path, searching for a subject to photograph, I spotted a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) sitting on a bush. The bird’s small head and long tail made it pretty easy for me to identify. I snapped off a couple of shots before the dove flew away. Following the bird in its flight, I watched as it gently took a spot on some powerlines, where several small, noisy birds already were perched.

I like the contrasts in the photo I took at that moment. The two small birds are shadowy and full of sharp edges, suggesting a kind of nervous, frenetic energy. The dove is larger, softer, and brighter and radiates a sense of gentleness and peace, undisturbed by the outside world. The parallel lines of the wires provide a man-made geometric structure for the natural elements and the sky provides a gradient-like backdrop to the entire scene.

Morning Mourning Dove

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Honk if you like geese

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , on November 25, 2012| 5 Comments »

I continue my quest to capture birds in flight and geese continue to be a favorite subject. They are loud and big and fly slowly enough for me to have a fighting chance of capturing a decent image. That is not to say, however, that it’s been easy to photograph geese in flight. There are so many variables that I can’t control, particularly the direction of the geese in relation to the sun. Ideally the sun would illuminate the underside of the geese, rather than hiding parts of the body in dark shadows.

One morning earlier this weekend, conditions were relatively favorable and I was able to photograph these Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) as they flew by me. I like the different positions of the wings on each goose at the moment of the photo—it looks to me almost like a multiple exposure image, intended to show the flight of a single goose in stop=action.

Canada Geese in flight

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bird on a branch

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , , on November 24, 2012| 5 Comments »

Today was cloudy, windy, and overcast—definitely not an ideal day for taking photos. Sure, I like to have some clouds to cut down on harsh shadows, but you need sunlight to have shadows, and we sure did not have much of that today.

This afternoon I was walking on a path along a creek when small flock of birds flew into some nearby trees. They were pretty noisy and that attracted my attention. Looking though my telephoto zoom lens, I saw that they had an interesting silhouette, so I took some shots. They sky was already really light, but when I tweaked the exposure a little it went totally white and a really cool-looking bird emerged from the shadows. Usually I am pretty bad at identifying birds, but my initial Google search on the very distinctive yellow wing tips was successful in identifying this bird as a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum).

Cedar Waxwing on a branch

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cedar Waxwings feed on mostly fruit year-round, one of the few North American birds that specialize in eating fruit. One of the consequences of doing so, however, is that they sometimes get intoxicated from eating fermenting berries. The range map for this species suggests that they may be present year-round in this area (we are close to the northern boundary), but this is the first time that I have seen one.

This photo is more “artsy” than realistic, but I like its graphic character. It looks a bit to me like an illustration, in part, I guess, because of the white background.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Profile of a goose

Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2012| 4 Comments »

The Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) continue to make migratory stops at Huntley Meadows Park, the local marshland in which I have been taking a lot of photos recently and I have been able to observe them closely. I am always struck by their beautifully expressive eyes, which seem to reflect an inner gentleness.

The old proverb says that the eyes of the mirror of the soul. I have been told from the outset that I should always strive to have the eyes in focus when I am photographing people and animals. As far as I can tell, that’s one of the few rules of photography that is almost never broken.

How often do you make eye contact with other people? I am amazed at how infrequently people acknowledge the presence of others by looking into their eyes. It was one of the biggest adjustments I had to make when I left military service, in which you saluted and greeted everyone in uniform that you passed. So often people pass each other without any visual signal that they recognize the presence of other sentient being. Needless to say, I am not a fan of wearing headphones in public.

People may think that you are a little strange, but I encourage you to look others in the eye and smile and greet them—it’s amazing how their attitude and expressions change.

Profile of a Canada Goose

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Look of determination

Posted in Birds, Inspiration, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 23, 2012| 4 Comments »

Some birds seem to enjoy relaxing and posing and showing off their beauty, embodying a carefree approach to life. Woodpeckers, on the other hand, seem to be serious and focused, with a look of sheer determination in their eyes. It’s the same look that I see in so many of the people here in the Washington D.C. area, so driven in their professional lives that they are in danger of losing their identities apart from work.

Today, I photographed this Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) as he was preparing himself for work. Look deeply into his eye and what to you see? (Click on the photo to see more details.) The dead tree seems huge in comparison to this tiny bird. Yet he seems determined, determined to beat his head repeatedly against that wood, determined to find the food that he hopes and believes may be hidden inside.

Determined Downy Woodpecker

 

Do you ever feel like this woodpecker?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Northern Shoveler

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , , , on November 23, 2012| 7 Comments »

When I first saw this duck and his mate this week, I thought it was just another mallard couple. As I studied the male, though, I couldn’t help but notice his elongated black bill—it’s as plain as the nose on its face (wait a minute, duck don’t have noses). The female’s bill was similar in shape, but was orange in color. Not only are they long, their bills also seemed wider at the tip than at their bases, causing the ducks to look almost cartoonish.

Northern Shoveler

Using the duck’s distinctive bill as a search term, it was easy for me to discover that this duck is called a Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Sometimes I am baffled by the names of species, but this time the reasoning behind the name was pretty obvious. Like the mallard, the Northern Shoveler is considered to be a “babbling duck.” It forages by swimming along with its bill lowered into the water, straining out small crustaceans and other invertebrates, and generally does not tip its head and upper body forward into the water, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Foraging Northern Shoveler

The Cornell Lab also notes that Northern Shoveler couple are monogamous and “remain together longer than pairs of other dabbling duck species.” Longer than other dabbling duck species? It makes me wonder about the divorce rate among dabbling ducks. Does “dabbling” refer to their mating habits as well as to their feeding habits? Do they stay together for the sake of the ducklings?

Northern Shoveler Couple

Speaking of ducklings, the Cornell Lab, which I highly recommend as a source of information about birds, includes the following bizarre and disgusting, yet strangely interesting factoid about this duck species, “When flushed off the nest, a female Northern Shoveler often defecates on its eggs, apparently to deter predators.” What a strange reaction.  With humans, flushing almost occurs after defecation, not before.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Resting goose

Posted in Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on November 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When migrating geese land at my local marsh, most of them spend their time foraging for food, storing up energy for the next leg of their trip. This Canada Goose, however, seemed to have decided to rest a bit to regain his strength and secluded himself from the feverish activity of the other geese. His position is not that unusual, but his surroundings make this photo stand out for me. The colors contrast nicely with the black of his head and I really like the reflections. Click on the photo if you would like to see it in higher resolution.

Canada Goose at rest

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Straining mallards

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 21, 2012| 7 Comments »

I have been watching migratory birds recently and observed that mallard ducks feed mainly by tipping forward and placing their fringed-edged bills in the water, straining out plants, seeds, and other material. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology categorizes mallards as “dabbling ducks” versus  “diving ducks” that go deep underwater to forage for food.

One mallard, though, used a different technique. Instead of dipping his head forward, he flattened himself out and placed his bill almost parallel to the water. He then slowly and systematically paddled back and forth with his beak in the water or just above it, continuously straining and restraining the surface of the water. (Did he require a restraining order?) As the photo shows, there was a lot of plant material available for him to gather. His female partner used the same technique, though I was not able to get a clear shot of her doing so.

Straining mallard

I observed another mallard straining in a different way. Along with his female companion, he was perched on a tiny piece of land. I must have startled him a little when I walked by, because he slipped into the water. Realizing he had nothing to fear from me, he tried to regain his spot. It required several vigorous attempts for him to climb out of the water and I managed to capture him straining to do so. I love the contrast between the determined look on his face and the impassive expression on the female’s face.

Mallard straining to regain his spot

Strain or strain? It’s so amazing that words can have so many different meanings—it strains the imagination.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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