Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Bucephala albeola, bufflehead, bufflehead duck, Canon SX50, Kingstowne VA on January 27, 2020| 4 Comments »
From a distance, male Bufflehead ducks (Bucephala albeola) generally look like they are black and white. Last Friday, however, the lighting was coming from a good direction and revealed some of the beautiful green and purple iridescent feathers on this bird’s head. The second image shows a Bufflehead couple and shows the dramatic difference in appearance between the male and female of this species.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon SX50, Dark-eyed Junco, junco, Junco hyemalis, Kingstowne VA on January 26, 2020| 5 Comments »
This past Friday I spotted a Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), one of the birds that is present in my area only during the winter months. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology there is a huge range of geographic variation in the Dark-eyed Junco, with five variants of the bird considered separate species until the 1980s.
The bird in the photo below is a “slate-colored junco,” the only type that I have ever seen. Variants found in other parts of the United States, however, may have white wings, pink sides, red backs, gray heads, or a dark hood. Yikes—bird identification is hard enough under normal circumstances, but with that much variation, it seems almost impossible.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Bald Eagle, bald eagle takeoff, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on January 25, 2020| 4 Comments »
I spotted this Bald Eagle last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The eagle was initially mostly hidden by branches, but I managed to get a clear shot of its head when it leaned forward and started to take off.
This month I have been particularly fortunate in finding eagles and in getting some pretty good shots of them. It is almost time for them to be nesting and before long portions of the refuge will be closed to keep the eagles from being disturbed. In the mean time I continue to walk the trails, trying to stay alert as I scan the trees and the skies for the possible presence of one of these majestic birds.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, sparrow, Tamron 150-600mm, white-throated sparrow, Woodbridge VA, Zonotrichia albicollis on January 24, 2020| 15 Comments »
The lighting was so beautiful last week when I spotted this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) that I did not mind that there was a branch partially blocking my view of the bird. I especially love the way that the lighting highlights the bright yellow markings in the area between the eye and the bill known technically as the lores.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm, composition, foggy morning, Prince William Forest Park, Triangle VA on January 23, 2020| 18 Comments »
When I am photographing wildlife, I have to make decision about composition really quickly. I generally have only a few options to capture the subject and then I try to work with what I have gotten when I do post-processing. With a landscape, though, I have the chance to think more deliberately about composition while taking the shot and not merely afterwards.
Last week when I arrived early in the morning at Prince William Forest Park, fog was hanging over a small pond. As I walked around it, I decided to try to capture the scene in several different ways. In my first attempt, I placed the fence in the lower portion of the image to emphasize the height of the trees. In the second shot, I placed the fence in the upper portion of the image to focus more attention on the reflection. In the final shot I switched to landscape mode and included more of the tree to the right.
Which one works best? None of these shots will win a prize, but for me the first one does the best job of capturing what I was seeing and feeling at the moment. I think it is a valuable exercise, though, for me to explore a number of possibilities when taking a shot, because it allows me to think of creative possibilities as I change perspectives rather than adopt a “one and done” mentality.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Meleagris gallopavo, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, turkey, Wild Turkey, Woodbridge VA on January 22, 2020| 11 Comments »
Most of the times when I see Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, they are foraging in the open along one of the trails. As I approach, they usually disappear deep into the vegetation.
At this time of the year, though, I can see a lot farther into the woods than when there are leaves on the trees. Occasionally now I can get a glimpse of the turkeys moving about in the distance. I was happy to capture these head shots last week of one of the local turkeys as it popped in and out of view.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm, creek, Prince William Forest Park, Quantico Creek, Triangle VA, two-board bridge, waterfall on January 21, 2020| 7 Comments »
Last Thursday I went for a hike in Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia. According to Wikipedia, the park is the largest protected natural area in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area at over 16,000 acres (65 square kilometers) and has over 37 miles (60 km) of hiking trails.
One of my favorite trails runs along Quantico Creek, a swiftly moving creek that flows through a large part of the eastern portion of the park. The trail, which runs roughly parallel to the creek, is hilly in places and the creek is sometimes not visible, but I can always hear the therapeutic sound of the flowing water.
The first two photos show waterfalls just below a dammed section of the creek—there is a small pond/lake just upstream. The smaller waterfall in the second photo is just to the right of the one shown in the first photo.
Parts of most of the trails, including the creekside one, were covered with wet fallen leaves, but occasionally I would come across narrow bridges that helped me cross marshy areas with relatively dry feet, like the one in the final photo.
I did not see much wildlife during my hike, but that was ok—the solitary walk in the forest was its own reward.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
