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Cartoon blackbird

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, blackbird, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird on May 14, 2014| 10 Comments »

Although I wake up to the sound of birds loudly chirping at this time of the year, it is getting increasingly difficult to see most of them as the trees regain their thick covering of leaves. The male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a notable exception, because he does not hide behind the foliage. Instead, he seems to choose the highest point in the open from which to boldly make his loud calls—there is not timidity or shyness in this bird.

The blackbird puts so much energy into his “singing” that at times his perch becomes precarious. I captured this blackbird in one such moment, when his position seems so awkward and distorted that looks like a cartoon to me.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Immature dragonflies

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Common Whitetail, Common Whitetail dragonfly, dragonfly, Huntley Meadows Park, immature, immature male dragonfly, Plathemis lydia, Tamron 180mm macro lens on May 13, 2014| 14 Comments »

As we move deeper into spring, dragonfly nymphs are emerging from the water and starting their transformed lives as acrobatic flyers. This past weekend I spotted some young male Common Whitetail dragonflies (Plathemis lydia) in different stages of development.

Not surprisingly, adult male Common Whitetail dragonflies have white tails—it seems like most species are named after the characteristics of the male. Check out one of my postings from last year to see what a mature adult male looks like. When they first emerge, however, the males have the same body colors and patterns as the females. Fortunately, it’s easy to tell them apart, because the wing patterns are different in the male and female whitetails. (For more information about these dragonflies, take a look at the pages at bugguide.net.)

The dragonfly in the first shot is well on his way to becoming an adult and was bold enough to be flying over the water. The one in the second shot is younger, and seemed to content to remain in the vegetation at a distance from the open water.

A "tween" male--the abdomen is beginning to turn blue, but the adolescent body pattern still shows

A “tween” male–the abdomen is beginning to turn blue, but the adolescent body pattern still shows

An immature male, with the body pattern of a female and the wing pattern of an adult male

An immature male, with the body pattern of a female and the wing pattern of an adult male

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Luck and skill

Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, bee, Canon 50D, flower, Huntley Meadows Park, luck, skill, Tamron 180mm macro lens on May 12, 2014| 18 Comments »

I was on my hands and knees last Friday, trying to get a shot of a small wildflower growing on the forest floor, when a bee landed on the very flower on which I was focusing. What are the odds of that happening at the moment when my eye was glued to the viewfinder and I was focusing manually?

The flower was only about four inches (10 cm) tall, which gives you an idea of the low angle from which I was shooting. After a second or two on the first flower (shown in the second shot), the bee moved to an adjacent flower, and I took the image I presented first. It’s interesting to note the narrowness of the depth of field—in the first shot below, I managed to focus on the bee’s head, whereas in the second shot, the focus point was more on the center of its body. I like each of the images for somewhat different reasons, but I am still shocked that I managed to get them.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than skilled.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Damselfly eyes

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, damselfly, damselfly eyes, eyes, Huntley Meadows Park, odonata, Tamron 180mm macro lens on May 11, 2014| 8 Comments »

This is the last image in my mini-series on insect eyes from this past Friday—a close-up of a beautiful little damselfly at Huntley Meadows Park, the local marshland where I take many of my nature photographs.

Photographing damselflies is particularly challenging for me, because they are so long and skinny (not to mention the fact that they are really small in size). About the only way to get their bodies completely in focus is to be absolutely perpendicular to them. When I took this image, I couldn’t get into the optimal position, thanks to a sharp, thorny bush, so the lower half of the body was out of focus. That is one of the reasons why I chose to crop this image as I did, though the main reason was to focus viewers’ attention on the eyes.

This image shows the wide separation of the damselfly’s eyes, which is one of the ways to tell them apart from dragonflies, the other members of the Odonata family. Dragonflies have eyes that are very close together or even touching each other.

If you missed the earlier postings on insect eyes, check out the images of a fly’s eyes and a dragonfly’s eyes. In all three cases, click on the images, if you want to get a higher resolution view of the insects’ beautiful eyes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Dragonfly eyes

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Common Whitetail, Common Whitetail dragonfly, dragonfly, dragonfly eyes, Huntley Meadows Park, Plathemis lydia, Tamron 180mm macro lens on May 10, 2014| 11 Comments »

Yesterday, I seemed to be particularly fascinated by insect eyes and did a posting on a fly, whose compound eyes were pretty amazing. However, dragonflies have the largest compound eyes of any insect and I was thrilled to be able to capture this face-to-face shot of a Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia), peering right at me over the edge of a leaf.

A dragonfly’s eyes can have as many as 30,000 facets, known as ommatidia, that contain light-sensitive proteins, according to an article in ScienceBlogs. Although, humans also have these kind of proteins, called opsins, we have only three (red, green, and blue), whereas a dragonfly has four or five, giving it the capability to see colors beyond human visual capabilities. A dragonfly’s eyes also wrap around its head, giving it an incredible field of view. For more information and a more scientific explanation, check out a posting entitled “Super-predators” that Sue did last June in her Backyard Biology blog.

I took this shot in a wooded grassy area adjacent to a pond. It seems that the Common Whitetail dragonflies are hanging out there early in the season and not too many of them are patrolling over the water, as I commonly saw them do last summer. The fact that the dragonfly was not perched on a branch coming out of the water proved to and advantage as I was able to approach pretty closely to it in order to take this shot.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, beetle, Canon 50D, Cicindela sexguttata, Huntley Meadows Park, metallic green, Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, Tamron 180mm macro lens, Tiger Beetle on May 10, 2014| 12 Comments »

Some insects blend in so perfectly with their environments that they are difficult to spot. That is clearly not the case with this Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) that I spotted yesterday at my local marsh.

The beetle’s metallic green body glistened in the sun and made it stand out against the bark of the fallen tree on which it was perched. It flew away several times when I got close to it, but kept returning, eventually remaining in place long enough for me to get this shot. Click on the image to get a higher resolution view of the beetle, including its textured body and multi-segment antennae.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Ducklings in Vienna

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, Travel, Urban, wildlife, tagged Canon A620, ducklings, fountain, mallard duck, Vienna, Vienna Austria, Volksgarten on May 8, 2014| 11 Comments »

As I was walking through the Volksgarten in Vienna, I was a bit surprised to encounter three ducklings, living in a fountain along with two male adult Mallards. The city had constructed a ramp so that the ducks could enter and exit the fountain and a couple of plywood platforms, where the ducklings would rest and play.

Obviously there was a mother duck involved in giving birth to these ducklings, which were no longer babies, but I did not see her at all during any of my three visits to see the ducks.

Although I had only a point-and-shoot camera with a small zoom lens, the fountain limited the movement of the ducklings and I was able to move in close for some pretty good shots, which show the personality of the little ducklings.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Blue Corporal dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Blue Corporal, Blue Corporal dragonfly, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, dragonfly, ephemeral spring dragonfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Ladona deplanata on May 4, 2014| 6 Comments »

Some of the common species of dragonflies are around throughout much of the summer. Other dragonflies, sometimes referred to as “spring ephemeral” dragonflies, are around for only brief periods of time in the early spring, like this male Blue Corporal dragonfly (Ladona deplanata) that I spotted last week on the boardwalk at my local marsh.

I had never seen this species before, but fortunately my fellow blogger and local dragonfly expert, Walter Sanford, was able to assist me with the identification. Check out his blog to see some awesome shots of dragonflies and other nature subjects.

I would love to be able to photograph this species the next time in a more natural environment, but I am pretty excited any time I have the chance to get a recognizable photo of a new species.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Red-eared Slider

Posted in Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, Tamron 180mm macro lens, Tracem, Trachemys scripta elegans), turtle on May 2, 2014| 8 Comments »

All of nature seems to be speeding up as we move deeper into spring. Even the turtles seem to be moving faster, like this Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) that I spotted recently at a county-run historical garden.

Initially the turtle was swimming around in a small pond (as shown in the second shot). I was pleased that I was able to capture a shot of the turtle as it was emerged from the water onto the shore.

I had my 180mm macro lens on my camera when I caught sight of the turtle and I was reminded of the need to zoom with my feet when using a lens with a fixed focal length. In my zeal to get a bit closer to the turtle, I narrowly avoided sliding down the bank into the water.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Bald eagle takeoff

Posted in Birds, Inspiration, Nature, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, takeoff on May 1, 2014| 4 Comments »

Some subjects are so awe-inspiring that I get excited just seeing them, even if they are too far away for a good photo—like this Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) that I saw Monday at my local marsh. The eagle seemed to sense my presence and took off before I could get closer, but I managed to capture an image of its final preparations for takeoff from the branch.

When I am walking through the woods at this time of the year, I have to keep my eyes in constant motion. Leaves are still sparse enough on the trees that I am still able to spot some birds in the trees. However, insects are starting to appear too, so I have to scan the leaves and branches on the ground for these little creatures.

On early Monday morning, as I looked through a break in the trees, I caught sight of a large bird in the distance, sitting on the end of a branch. I immediately stopped, having learned from experience that even a single step forward would be likely to spook the bird. The light was not great, but the shape suggested to me that it was probably a bald eagle.

The eagle looked around for a few seconds and then took off. At that moment, I was absolutely certain that it was a bald eagle. I was not so certain that I had captured any useable images, but I was content just to have experienced the sight of that majestic bird in flight.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Barn Swallows are back

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Barn Swallow, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Hirundo rustica, Huntley Meadows Park, swallow on April 28, 2014| 10 Comments »

Tree Swallows have been flying about for several weeks, but it was only this weekend that I finally observed one of their multi-colored brethren, the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica). Last year, the Barn Swallows built a nest underneath a raised observation platform of the boardwalk at my local marsh, and it looks like they are doing the same thing this year.

I was able to photograph this swallow as it perched on a small branch coming out of the water directly opposite the platform. The sky was mostly overcast during the day, which caused the reflections in the water to look mostly white. As I made a few adjustments to the image, the background essentially disappeared, resulting in a photo that looks almost like it was shot in a studio.

I really like the swallow’s serious pose and the fact that I was able to capture its signature swallow tail. It won’t be long before I see swallowtails on some of my favorite butterflies.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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First damselfly of the spring

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, damselfly, Fragile Forktail, Huntley Meadows Park, Ischnura posita, spring on April 27, 2014| 12 Comments »

Damselflies are beautiful, delicate insects that are often hard to see and photograph. I captured this image of my first damselfly of the year at Huntley Meadows Park this past Friday. I am not very good at identifying these tiny insects, but think this might be a Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita).

I was standing my the edge of my favorite beaver pond when I saw the damselfly in flight. I followed it with my eyes and was delighted when it landed on a nearby stalk of grass. I didn’t have a lot of maneuver, because much of the area at the pond’s edge is covered with thorny bushes, and I had to pull back a bit to get within the minimum focusing distance of my 70-300mm telephoto lens , i.e. 4.9 feet (1.5 meters). At that range, the dragonfly filled a reasonable amount of the frame.

Lighting was a bit of a challenge and I tried a couple of different settings as the damselfly lifted its tail from time to time. Eventually, it climbed to the end of the stalk and I changed position too and tried a couple of shots (including the final shot) using my pop-up flash.

Most of the time the first shot below is my favorite, but sometimes I like the others as well or more. In any case, I am happy that I was able to get some good shots of my first damselfly of the spring.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Mama duck

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, ducklings, Hooded Merganser, Hooded Merganser duck, Huntley Meadows Park, Lophodytes cucullatus, Mama duck, single mother duck on April 26, 2014| 6 Comments »

Female Hooded Merganser ducks (Lophodytes cucullatus) raise their ducklings as single Moms, which must be pretty tough when you have so many offspring to look after. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the male Hooded Merganser duck abandons his mate once she begins incubating eggs and it’s not known if they reunite the following season.

Last year, when the level of water at my local marsh was pretty low and there seemed to be lots of snapping turtles, most of the ducklings did not survive. After a lot of construction at the marsh, water levels are higher and I am hoping that things will be a little easier on the duck families.

I don’t know how old these ducklings are, but they appear to be tiny—even adult Hooded Mergansers are pretty small. A family of Hooded Mergansers was spotted earlier this week and I suspect that this is the same one, so they may be a week or so old.

I was not able to get very close to the ducks and the conscientious Mama duck started swimming away as soon as she sensed my presence early yesterday morning. You can see details in the first two shots, which are cropped a fair amount, but I included a final shot, which shows more of the setting, because I love the beautiful ripples in the water.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Baby goose

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged baby goose, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, cute, gosling, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm macro lens on April 24, 2014| 8 Comments »

Folks may have mixed emotions about adult Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and many consider them a nuisance, but I think that just about everyone agrees that goslings are really cute.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Beautiful wasp

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged beautiful wasp, Canon 50D, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, oxymoron, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm macro lens, wasp on April 21, 2014| 13 Comments »

Isn’t “beautiful wasp” an oxymoron? Can a wasp really be considered to be beautiful? I may be insect-deprived after a long winter and my perceptions may be skewed, but I find the wasp in these two images to be exceptionally beautiful.

The rich reddish-brown of its upper body, with a pattern that looks like some exotic wood, and the bluish-purple of its wings make for a stunning combination, and the holly leaf provides a perfect backdrop.

I took this shot during a visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA this past weekend, a garden that featured thousands of tulips and other spring flowers in bloom, but almost no insects. I actually was not inside the garden, but was waiting outside the gift shop for some fellow photographers when I spotted this wasp sprawled out on the leaf, as shown in the second image. The nice thing about my 180mm macro is that I didn’t have to get right on top of the insect to capture some good detail. When I moved in a little closer, the wasp slowly climbed up the leaf, as captured in the first shot, before it flew away.

It was nice to see insects start to reappear and I suspect that I will start using my macro lens more and more as we move deeper into spring and into summer.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Coiled for inaction

Posted in Art, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coiled snake, Huntley Meadows Park, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, snake, water snake on April 12, 2014| 14 Comments »

Sometimes a coiled snake is prepared to strike, but this Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) was definitely not ready for action. The snake seemed total relaxed as it basked in the sun, curled up above the surface of the water on some dried up vegetation.

I really like the texture of the snake’s skin, but there was no way that I was going to reach out and touch it. Telephoto lenses are a good thing in situations like this.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Egret landing

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea alba, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, egret, Great Egret, Huntley Meadows Park, landing on April 11, 2014| 10 Comments »

Unlike the Great Blue Herons that stay in Northern Virginia all winter, Great Egrets (Ardea alba) depart for warmer locations during the winter. I was happy to note this past weekend that the egrets are now back at my local marsh, where I took these shots of one coming in for a landing.

The wing span of this bird is impressive and I love the way that it points its toes as it comes in for the landing. As is often the case, I had challenges getting a proper exposure—I try to expose for the brilliant white body, but often blow out the highlights. I am pleased that I was able to capture some of the details of the wings in these images, though the shadows caused much of the plumage to look gray, rather than white.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Not a robin

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American robin, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Eastern Towhee, Huntley Meadows Park, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, robin, towhee, Turdus migratorius on April 10, 2014| 6 Comments »

At first I thought that the black and orange birds rooting about in the fallen leaves were American Robins (Turdus migratorius), but a closer look through the undergrowth revealed that there was white on their breasts and that their eyes were red.

It turns out that they are Eastern Towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), a strikingly marked oversized sparrow. It was quite a challenge to get somewhat unobstructed shots of these birds. They seemed to be in constant motion, hopping about and rummaging through the leaves—I had to chase them around for quite some time to get these modest shots.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Neighborhood chickadee

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Carolina Chickadee, chickadee, Poecile carolinensis, Runnymeade on April 9, 2014| 7 Comments »

What kind of birds do you have in your neighborhood? I live in the suburbs of Washington D.C. in a townhouse community in Northern Virginia. There are quite a few trees and some green spaces, so I am able to find birds to photograph when I walk through the neighborhood, though the birds tend to be small and elusive.

This past weekend, I encountered a reasonably cooperative Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) that remained perched in a tree in a fenced backyard as I desperately sought to compose the shot. I was hoping to have the sky as the background, because I was shooting upward, but the branches of the tree made it impossible to get that shot. I quickly realized that my only hope for an uncluttered background was to use the white siding of the townhouse as the backdrop. As I moved from side to side, I noticed that the blue shutters of the townhouse kept creeping into the frame and decided to incorporate them as an element of the image.

I really like the final result, a pleasing portrait of a little chickadee with a simple, almost minimalist composition.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Rising out of the swamp

Posted in Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, forked tongue, Huntley Meadows Park, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, swamp, water snake on April 8, 2014| 10 Comments »

Spring has definitely arrived, bringing with it an abundance of snakes in addition to the profusion of flowering plants. Most of the snakes have been all curled up, basking in the sun. This Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), however, was slithering through the water and stuck out its tongue and hissed at me before disappearing below the surface of the water.

I really like the way the colors of the snake’s skin match those of its surroundings and even the reddish color of the forked tongue is repeated in the fallen blossom.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Parakeet in the wild

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged blue parakeet, Budgerigar, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Melopsittacus undulatus, parakeet, Runnymeade, suburbs on April 7, 2014| 13 Comments »

As I strolled through my suburban neighborhood on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I expected to see cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, and goldfinches in the trees—I had no idea that I would also encounter a brightly colored tropical bird.

I first saw the bird as a flash of brilliant blue, when it flew from a bird feeder on a back porch to a nearby tree. I love the blue colors of the Eastern Bluebirds, but this was an entirely different shade of blue. Initially the bird was in the shade and I tried to figure out what it was from its shadowy shape, but I was stumped, because it didn’t seem to have a bill.

When I circled around and got a better look, I could see that it was a blue parakeet. What was a parakeet doing outdoors in Northern Virginia? Had it recently escaped from one of the nearby townhouses? Can it survive for long outside?

I did a little research on the internet and learned that the birds we know as parakeets are more technically known as Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). In the wild, they live in parts of Australia and are naturally green and yellow. In captivity, they have been bred to have different colors, like the electric blue of this one. Judging from the brown color of the cere (the waxy structure that covers the base of the bill), this appears to be a female.

I’ll keep my eyes open to see if I can spot this beautiful bird again. Meanwhile, I will post the photos in the Facebook group of my homeowners’ association and see if I can learn from others how long this bird has been living in the wild.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Dragonflies are back

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Anax junius, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Common Green Darner, dragonfly, green darner, Huntley Meadows Park on April 6, 2014| 8 Comments »

The weather has gotten warmer, but I was still a bit surprised when I saw my first dragonfly of the year yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marsh. I think that it is a female Common Green Darner dragonfly (Anax junius), one of the species that migrates north after spending the winter in warmer places. This is the only dragonfly that I saw yesterday and I was able to squeeze off a couple of shots before it disappeared. I’m hoping that it won’t be long before I see more dragonflies and butterflies, some of my favorite photographic subjects.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Sound the alarm

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, goose, Huntley Meadows Park, panning on April 5, 2014| 9 Comments »

Some folks complain a lot about Canada Geese, but I enjoy trying to photograph them, especially when they are taking off and landing. It seems like the number of them has dwindled somewhat at my local marsh recently–perhaps some of them have migrated north.

Yesterday, this goose began to sound the alarm as soon as it became aware of my presence and took off a short time later, still crying out with its tongue extended. I managed to track the bird as it was taking off and to shoot a series of shots. The sky was pretty heavily overcast yesterday, so I had raised my ISO to 320 and figured that I would have enough speed to capture the action. What I didn’t realize at the time, though, was that my aperture was still set at f/11, because I had been shooting some landscapes just prior to these shots. I was in aperture priority mode and my camera chose a shutter speed of 1/1oo of a second.

In the first shot, the goose is relatively sharp and there is little motion blur, except for the background, which is blurred, I think, because I was panning as I tracked the goose. In the second shot, though, which preceded the first in time, the wings and the feet have some motion blur, which accentuates the feeling of the goose scrambling to get into the air.

I keep going back and forth in trying to decide which of this two photos I like better. The technical side of my brain wants to vote for the first one, but the artistic side prefers the second image. What do you think?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Red-eye special

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, red eyes, red-eye on April 4, 2014| 3 Comments »

Another coot? Yes, as I was going over my recent shots of an American Coot (Fulica americana) at my local marsh one more time, I decided that I liked this image even more than the one I posted yesterday. The coot has a kind of determined look in its eye and the tilted head gives it a sense of tension, like it is exerting effort to pull that plant out of the water. Besides, I seem to be attracted to birds and animals with unusually colored eyes.

I find it tough at times to choose the best shot quickly when I have shot a series of images. Probably I need to take a little more time in reviewing the images, but I am often in too much of a hurry to find an image (or images) to post. A year ago, I felt compelled to attempt to post every single day, but I have backed off slightly and miss a day now from time to time.

Nonetheless, I still like to post images that appeal to me, which are often, but not always, my “best” shots. Sometimes the photos will merely document the experience that I want to share with readers and may not be technically great images. It’s a little selfish, perhaps, but I shoot mostly for me. Fortunately, I sense that my skills are improving and hope that the quality of the images I post tend to reflect that improvement.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Hungry coot

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park on April 3, 2014| 9 Comments »

Thanks to some recent rains and a major wetland restoration project at my local marsh, we seem to have a lot more American Coots (Fulica americana) than last year. Most of the time they seem to like to keep their distance. This past Monday, though, one of them drifted toward an area relatively close to where I was standing and I managed to get this shot of the coot feeding on some of the vegetation growing out of the water.© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Submerged turtle

Posted in Art, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Clemmys guttata, Huntley Meadows Park, Spotted Turtle, turtle on April 2, 2014| 11 Comments »

As I was tiptoeing my way along a tree that had fallen across a flooded area of my local marsh, I glanced down and caught sight of this turtle, submerged in the shallow water. I am no expert in identifying turtles, but it was pretty easy to identify this as a Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata), a species that I don’t see very often.

According to Wikipedia, the spotted turtle is federally endangered in Canada and in the United States it is considered to be vulnerable to extinction in the wild in the medium-term future, or threatened in most of its habituating states. Within Virginia, the state in which I live, the Herpetological Society is pretty grim in its prognosis, “Extinction or extirpation is possible. Populations of these species are in decline or have declined to low levels or are in a restricted range. Management action is needed to stabilize or increase populations.”

It was a bit of a challenge getting a shot of this turtle. I was standing on the trunk of a tree, so my footing was a bit precarious. The water was probably only a few inches deep, but it seemed to defeat my auto-focusing system, so I ended up focusing manually. Finally, there was a bit of glare coming off of the surface of the water, so I had to bend down to search for an angle that allowed me to minimize the glare.

I am hoping that I will see these turtles often and that Huntley Meadows Park, the place where I take a lot of my wildlife photographs, will continue to be a refuge for this species and for many other ones.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Springtime squirrel

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Eastern Gray Squirrel, gray squirrel, Huntley Meadows Park, Sciurus carolinensis, spring, squirrel on April 1, 2014| 7 Comments »

Taking advantage of yesterday’s gorgeous springtime weather, this little Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) took a break from his chores to enjoy a snack and to bask in the warmth of the sun for a few moments.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Fishing for sticks

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Belle Haven Marina, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Osprey, Pandion haliaetus on March 31, 2014| 16 Comments »

Hoping to capture a shot of an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) snagging a fish earlier this month, I started firing my camera each time the osprey dove toward the surface of the water with talons extended, but, unlike the bird, I came up empty-handed. The osprey, it turns out, was not fishing for food—it was gathering building materials for its nest. It was impressive nonetheless to watch an osprey fly up into the sky with a pretty large branch in its grasp.

Click on the photos if you want to see a higher resolution view of the images. (I am always amazed by the osprey’s yellow eyes.)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Blackbird singing

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, blackbird, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, male Red-winged Blackbird, Red-wing Blackbird on March 29, 2014| 11 Comments »

Despite the rain yesterday, the male Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were singing up a storm. It seemed like their entire bodieswould expand as they prepared to call out loudly. I didn’t see any female blackbirds respond to the calls—in fact, I didn’t see any at all.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Two’s a couple

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, Tree Swallow on March 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

It’s springtime and love is in the air. Two tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) seemed intent on getting to know each other better, but kept getting buzzed by a third swallow. A couple of times, one of the swallows, which I suspect was the male, took off and chased away the potential rival.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Longing for color

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern cardinal on March 27, 2014| 6 Comments »

Like the dried-up leaves on this branch, winter is tenaciously hanging on, refusing to give way to spring. March is almost over, yet I look out the window and see that the ground is still covered with snow.

Soon the monochromatic tones of winter will be replaced by the pastel colors of spring. Starved for bright colors, my senses rejoice when I am greeted by bright colors, like those of this male Northern Cardinal (Cardinal cardinalis) that I observed this past weekend.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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