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Dawning of a new year

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, dawn, Huntley Meadows Park, new year, Tamron 150-600mm on January 1, 2017| 8 Comments »

It’s just starting to get light outside, the dawning of a new year. It’s time to hang new calendars and to try to remember 2017 on my checks. I’m not really into setting resolutions, but New Year’s Day is a good time to stop to reflect on the past year. Then it will be time to boldly step into the as yet uncharted territories of 2017, certain only that there will be both challenges and opportunities—I hope that I will learn and grow irrespective of the circumstances,

Best wishes to all those who read and/or view my blog for a healthy and happy 2017.

I took these shots as the sun was rising early yesterday morning at Huntley Meadows Park for the final time in 2016. The treeline to the east blocked me from seeing the actual sunrise, but the colors were spectacular for a few brief moments.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Merlin in flight

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Falco columbarius, Huntley Meadows Park, Merlin, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on December 31, 2016| 18 Comments »

When I first caught sight of this bird in the distance, I thought it might be a Red-shouldered Hawk, but I may have gotten lucky and captured some shots of a Merlin (Falco columbarius) this morning at Huntley Meadows Park. The past few months there have been repeated sightings of a pair of these falcons, but I personally have seen one of them on only two occasions. After so many recent days of cloud-filled skies, it was nice to have some sunshine and blue skies today, though the temperature was right around the freezing mark when I set out in the pre-dawn darkness.

UPDATE: One of my Facebook viewers has suggested that this looks to him to be an immature Red-tailed Hawk. As you can see, bird identification is not one of my strengths.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Foraging shoveler

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas clypeata, Canon 50D, foraging, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Shoveler, shoveler, Tamron 150-600mm on December 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Some birds are so skittish that they fly away the very second that they detect my presence. Other birds are so tolerant or have gotten so used to humans that they will come right up to me or allow me to get pretty close to them. Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) are somewhere in the middle—generally they will turn their backs to me and swim away, but don’t fly away.

On a recent trip to my favorite marshland park, Huntley Meadows Park, I spotted a small group of Northern Shovelers. They were in constant motion as they foraged in the vegetation in the far reaches of one of the small ponds. It was a bit frustrating trying to get shots of them, because they spent most of the time swimming with their heads partially submerged.

I waited patiently and finally one of the handsome males briefly stopped swimming and gave me a half-smile and I was able to capture this image.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Turtle shell

Posted in abstract, Art, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, organic, Tamron 150-600mm, turtle, turtle shell on December 29, 2016| 3 Comments »

I never quite know what I will see when I wander about in the back areas of Huntley Meadows Park. This past Monday I came upon this partially deteriorated turtle shell. Initially it was in a muddy area adjacent to a beaver pond, but I moved it onto branches of a fallen tree to take the photos.

I just love the organic shapes and designs of the shell and the way that you can see some of its underlying structure.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early morning on the Potomac River

Posted in Christmas, Language, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, fishermen, fishing, Fort Washington Park, lighthouse, Maryland, Potomac River, Tamron 150-600mm on December 28, 2016| 7 Comments »

As they headed out on the Potomac River this past weekend, these fishermen looked like they had decorated their rods with little Christmas ornaments that glimmered in the early morning light as I watched them from the shore at historic Fort Washington Park in Maryland.

The buildings and gun emplacements at the fort are impressive, but more than anything else, I am irresistibly drawn to the little lighthouse there. Even though I was shooting with a long telephoto zoom lens, I tried several landscape-style compositions in an effort to capture a sense of the location.

The shoreline on the other side of the river was hazy and indistinct, almost like an impressionist painting, but it proved to be tough to capture that feeling with my camera. This final shot gives you a sense of what I was going for—I think a tripod might help in the future with this kind of a shot.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Northern Pintail couple?

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas acuta, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Pintail, Northern Pintail Duck, Tamron 150-600mm on December 27, 2016| 9 Comments »

It was really cool yesterday to see some elegant Northern Pintail ducks (Anas acuta) poking about in the distant weeds of Huntley Meadows Park. At first I thought that the ducks in this first image were male-female couple. The more I look at the image, however, the more I think the duck in the foreground may be an immature male that will eventually look like the male in the background. The Northern Pintails in the second image look more to me like a male-female couple.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Christmas moon

Posted in Christmas, commentary, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Christmas, Christmas 2016, Christmas moon, Runnymeade, Tamron 150-600mm on December 25, 2016| 3 Comments »

As I walked through frosty streets in the early hours of Christmas morning, I could see lots of colored lights adorning the houses of my neighbors. What really drew my eyes, though, was the sliver of the moon shining brightly in the darkness—it was simultaneously modest and spectacular. It brought to mind some words from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

As my pastor reminded us last night, Christmas comes in ordinary ways to everyday people like us and it is a season of hope and expectation. No matter what you believe or what you choose to celebrate, we can all use more light and hope in our lives and today is a good day to be reminded of that.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Northern Shovelers are back

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas clypeata, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Shoveler, Tamron 150-600mm on December 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

We haven’t yet had snow, but Monday there were quite a few shovelers at Huntley Meadows Park. Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) are pretty easy to identify because of their cartoonishly elongated bills (and striking yellow eyes).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Peek-a-boo with a redhead

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, peek-a-boo, peekaboo, Red-headed Woodpecker, Tamron 150-600mm, woodpecker on December 21, 2016| 3 Comments »

Sometimes I have this feeling that the birds and other creatures that I photograph are playing games with me. On Monday this Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) seemed to be playing peek-a-boo with me at Huntley Meadows Park. It was hiding at the top of a broken-off tree and at irregular intervals would show its face for just a split second and then immediately pull it back.

As I look at the woodpecker’s head I can see streaks of brown, rather than the solid red of an adult, suggesting that this may be a juvenile redhead—maybe that’s why it likes to play games.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Another bald eagle

Posted in Birds, Nature, Patriotism, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on December 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

Is it possible to post too many photos of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)? I don’t think so. Here’s a shot of one I saw yesterday flying in the distance at Huntley Meadows Park. It was a nice bonus that we had sunshine and blue skies after a series of dreary, overcast days, even though it was still pretty cold outside.

I see Bald Eagles, including juvenile ones, often enough at the park that I frequently wonder if there is a nest hidden somewhere the park. I have wandered through some pretty remote areas of the park, but so far have been unsuccessful in locating a nesting site.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hawk in mid-December

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Buteo lineatus, Canon 50D, hawk, Huntley Meadows Park, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Tamron 150-600mm on December 19, 2016| 1 Comment »

High in the trees on a bleak, overcast day, this Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) was keeping watch over Huntley Meadows Park last Friday. As I was getting ready to post this image, I realized that I photographed a hawk on exactly the same perch a little over a month earlier. I decided to reprise that earlier photo to show you how much the foliage has changed. I suspect, however) that it is not the same hawk.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Morning Mourning Dove

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, mourning dove, Tamron 150-600mm, Zenaida macroura on December 17, 2016| 6 Comments »

Early yesterday morning it was frigid at Huntley Meadows Park and this Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) appeared to have fluffed up its feathers in an attempt to retain its body heat. Normally Mourning Doves are very skittish, but this one remained on the branch for quite a while as I slowly moved into position to take a series of shots.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Berry hungry

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, American Bittersweet, Canon 50D, Catharus guttatus, Celastrus scandens, Hermit Thrush, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on December 16, 2016| 14 Comments »

It was unusually cold when I set out this morning to go shooting, about 18 degrees F (minus 8 C). I always worry about birds in the wild being able to survive when it gets this cold, but somehow they manage.

As I was walking along the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows Park, I spotted a bird in the distance bobbing up in a tree. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I got closer and could see that the bird was reaching up to grab some red berries that were just above its head.

At first I thought that this was an immature American Robin, but the more I look at the photos, the more I think that it is probably a different bird species. I would welcome assistance in identifying this mystery bird that obviously was berry hungry.

UPDATE: Thanks to several knowledgeable folks on Facebook, I have learned that the bird is a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) and the plant with the berries is an American Bittersweet vine (Celastrus scandens).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Merry Christmas 2016 from Vienna

Posted in Architecture, Christmas, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Winter, tagged Canon SX50, Christmas, Christmas 2016, Christmas market, city hall, Rathaus, Vienna Austria on December 15, 2016| 2 Comments »

My short trip to Vienna, Austria is rapidly coming to a close and I want to leave you with this image of the entrance to the outdoor Christmas market at the Rathaus (City Hall), the tall building in the background.

Best wishes to all for a “Frohe Weihnachten,” German for “Merry Christmas.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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December night in Vienna

Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Photography, Travel, tagged Canon SX50, Hofburg Palace, nighttime photography, Vienna Austria on December 13, 2016| 6 Comments »

Nighttime in Vienna, Austria is incredible—there are so many beautiful buildings that are wonderfully illuminated. Capturing their beauty while hand holding my superzoom Canon SX50 is a bit of a challenge, but I try to stabilize myself by leaning against various poles, buildings, and other stationary objects.

This shot of a clock tower in one of the inner courtyards of the Hofburg Palace is my favorite image from yesterday evening while I was wandering around the city.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swan Lake in Vienna

Posted in Birds, Music, Nature, Photography, Travel, wildlife, tagged Canon SX50, Donau-Auen National Park, Mute Swan, swan, Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, Vienna Austria on December 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It was not quite as elaborate as Tchaikovsky, but the Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) at the small lake at the Donau-Auen National Park in Vienna, Austria performed their own form of water ballet this past weekend. Here are a couple of shots of the acrobatic moves of one of the swans and an overall view of the “Swan Lake.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swans on ice in Vienna

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Travel, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon SX50, Cygnus olor, Donau-Auen National Park, Mute Swan, swan, Vienna Austria on December 11, 2016| 11 Comments »

Today I had some free time to wander about in the Donau-Auen National Park in Vienna, Austria.I am visiting Vienna for a few days on a business trip and decided that I did not want to fight the crowds at the numerous Christmas markets in the city.

It was cool and windy and I did not see as much wildlife as I did during a visit there last April. However I did manage to spot a family of Mute Swans (Cygnus olor). Two of them—one adult and one adolescent—landed on ice that had formed on the small lake and they struggled to walk across the slippery surface to reach open water. The adult, who was bright white in color, moved with much more confidence than the dusky-colored youngster, who moved in a cautious and tentative way. I suspect that it was the first time that the young swan had encountered ice.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Keep moving

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Cathartes aura, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm, turkey vulture, vulture on December 9, 2016| 7 Comments »

Whenever a vulture is circling overhead, I like to make sure I move about from time to time. This Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) at Huntley Meadows Park didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to me, but you can never be too cautious, especially if you have not taken a shower that morning.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Seeking shelter

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on December 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

When it’s cold and windy, the Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) at Huntley Meadows Park often like to seek sheltered areas at the edge of the water. Unlike the heron, I stayed out in the open and was buffeted by the strong winds as I tried to capture this profile shot of the heron.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Telephoto landscapes

Posted in Autumn, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, landscape, Tamron 150-600mm on December 7, 2016| 2 Comments »

Some photographers like to stay in one spot and let the action come to them, but most of the time I prefer to keep on the move, opportunistically scanning for subjects to shoot. There is one place, however, at Huntley Meadows Park that I will sometimes visit and simply sit for extended periods of time. It is a beaver pond in a secluded area of the park and I feel a sense of peace surround me whenever I am there.

This past Monday I was sitting on a log at that spot and was struck by the beauty of the elements of the scene in front of me. I tried to capture some of those elements of the landscape with they 150-600mm zoom lens that was on my camera at that moment. I like the way that the telephoto lens provides an intimate landscape view, unlike the wide-angle view that I typically associate with landscapes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Heron on dry land

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on December 6, 2016| 4 Comments »

The water levels are really low in many parts of Huntley Meadows Park and it seemed like this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was looking over mostly dry land as it surveyed the landscape this past weekend.

The banding of the colors in the background add some visual interest to the image, without being distracting. I was standing at the edge of a dried portion of the marsh and that permitted me to take this shot from a low angle, looking slightly up at the heron.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Late autumn cardinal

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Cardinalis cardinalis, female Northern Cardinal, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern cardinal, Tamron 150-600mm on December 4, 2016| 7 Comments »

The subdued colors of the female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) seem to be perfectly suited for the late autumn, when the muted shades of the fallen leaves seem to dominate the landscape.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Kingfisher catch

Posted in Birds, Fish, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Belted Kingfisher, birds in flight, Canon 50D, female Belted Kingfisher, Huntley Meadows Park, kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon, Tamron 150-600mm on December 3, 2016| 12 Comments »

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park watching a female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), one of my favorite birds. She was perched on a broken-off tree a pretty good distance away and there was no way that I could get any closer, since there was water between the boardwalk on which I was standing and that tree.

The kingfisher remained perched for quite some time, so I had plenty of time to steady myself and adjust settings until I was relatively content with some of my shots. What I really wanted to do, though, was to capture the kingfisher. I knew that eventually the kingfisher would dive into the water and I waited. Kingfishers don’t give any real warning when they are ready to dive, so I tried to remain alert and ready, even though I knew the chances of me capturing this fast-moving bird in flight were slim.

The kingfisher dove several times and I did manage to capture a few ok images of her flight toward the water. My favorite shot, however, is the final one here in which she is flying out of the water with what looks to be a small fish.

It was a nice catch for both of us.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Santa bird

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Santa, Santa bird, sparrow, Tamron 150-600mm, white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis on December 2, 2016| 2 Comments »

I often think of this little bird as the “Santa bird,” because of its white “beard” and round belly. Technically speaking, it’s a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), but it’s often more fun to make up my own names for the creatures that I see and photograph.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bird bath

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, bathing, Cameron Run, Canon 50D, nird, silhouette, Tamron 150-600mm on December 1, 2016| 6 Comments »

Late in the afternoon I was walking along a stream when I suddenly heard some splashing at the edge of the water. Full of curiosity I peered though the bushes to see what was going on. I was looking almost directly into the sun, so all I could see was the silhouette of a bird that was bathing in the shallow water. I knew that I would not be able to capture the details of the bird, but what I really wanted to do was to capture the mood of that intimate moment.

I hesitated a little to post this image, because its flaws are evident, but somehow it speaks to me emotionally through its simple color palette, through the shadowy unidentified bird, and through the concentric ripples in the water. My usual rule of thumb is to post the images that I like, so here it is. I realize that my views of the image are really subjective and are tied to my memories of the moment—you had to be there.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Defying gravity

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, defying gravity, Downy Woodpecker, Huntley Meadows Park, Picoides pubescens, Tamron 150-600mm, woodpecker on November 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

This energetic little Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) seemed to be defying gravity on Monday as it leaned over backwards and pecked away at a small tree growing out of the water at Huntley Meadows Park.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The Birds

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Alfred Hitchcock, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Escher, grackle, Huntley Meadows Park, Rusty Blackbird, Tamron 150-600mm, The Birds on November 29, 2016| 8 Comments »

Yesterday the fields and forests of Huntley Meadows Park were alive with the sound of birds, lot of birds. I didn’t get a close enough look to identify the black birds, but they seem to be Rusty Blackbirds or Grackles. As they foraged, they moved from one spot to another in a great cloud of birds, all flying at the same time.

I tried to capture images of the birds with different backgrounds and especially like the first one below, which reminds me of some pf Escher’s pen-and-ink drawings of birds.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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High heron

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on November 28, 2016| 11 Comments »

Generally when I see a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in a tree, it is roosting in a protected location and napping. Early one morning this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park, however, I spotted this alert heron perched on an exposed dead tree, looking like it was playing the role of a sentinel.

I initially caught sight of the heron from a distance and followed a path in the treeline that let me get almost underneath the heron for some shots. The sky was overcast and there was not much light, causing the background to appear white and the images to be almost monochromatic.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Panning a heron

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, panning, Tamron 150-600mm on November 27, 2016| 3 Comments »

Sometimes I will intentionally use a slow shutter speed when I am panning a moving subject to blur the background and give a sense of motion, but that was not the case with these photos—I was shooting in aperture-priority mode and simply wasn’t paying attention to the shutter speed that the camera was giving me. In all three of these images, the shutter speed was 1/100 of a second, which is really too slow for handholding my 150-600mm zoom lens.

As the old saying goes, though, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. I really like the way the background was rendered and am not at all bothered by the somewhat soft focus on parts of the moving heron.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hoodie season

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Cameron Run, Canon 50D, Hooded Merganser, Hooded Merganser duck, Lophodytes cucullatus, Tamron 150-600mm on November 26, 2016| 3 Comments »

It’s Hoodie season—hooded sweatshirts for me and lots of Hooded Merganser ducks (Lophodytes cucullatus) at Cameron Run in Alexandria, Virginia.

Yesterday I spotted this group of six males swimming around and hanging out together. Most of the time during the year when I see Hooded Mergansers, it is a couple or a mother with ducklings, so it was unusual for me to see such a large grouping. There were a few females too, but they seemed to ignore the males and for the most part kept to themselves.

While the single guys were burning off some energy, a couple found a quiet spot and decided to take a nap. I often see Canada Geese and Mallard ducks sleeping, but I am pretty sure that this is the first time that I have ever seen the little Hooded Mergansers doing so.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Thanksgiving Day Hawk

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Thanksgiving, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Buteo lineatus, Cameron Run, Canon 50D, hawk, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Tamron 150-600mm on November 25, 2016| 4 Comments »

When I was walking yesterday along Cameron Run, a tributary of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, I was shocked to spot a hawk perched nearby in a small tree almost at eye level. I was on a paved bike trail that parallels the stream and there is a relatively steep embankment that slopes down to the water’s edge. The tree was located on that embankment.

When the hawk, which I think is a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) eventually flew away and landed atop a building, it screamed out repeatedly at some circling crows. It makes me wonder if the hawk had previously been hiding from harassing crows and that is why it permitted me to get relatively close without initially taking off.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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