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Archive for the ‘Winter’ Category

Canvasback in flight

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Aythya valisineria, Belle Haven Marina, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Canvasback, Canvasback duck, Potomac River on March 18, 2014| 6 Comments »

As I was observing the osprey couple on the Potomac River this past weekend, I spotted an unusual-looking duck of a species that I had never seen before. One of my fellow photographers said that he was pretty sure that it was a Canvasback duck (Aythya valisineria) and I couldn’t disagree, having no idea what a Canvasback duck looked like.

The duck was a pretty good distance away and I was looking through my telephoto lens when it decided to take off from the water. I don’t think that the duck was aware of our presence, for it initially flew toward us and parallel to the shore before veering off into the center of the river. I was able to track the duck pretty well and got some in-flight shots, including my two favorites that I am posting.

I am not one hundred percent sure of the identification and would welcome a confirmation or correction, as appropriate, from someone with more experience in identifying bird species.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Swallows in motion

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, Tree Swallow on March 17, 2014| 19 Comments »

I was a little surprised to see some Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) on Saturday when I visited Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a freshwater tidal wetlands on the Potomac River. I thought it was a bit early for these little aerial acrobats to be here, given the fact that there are not yet many insects for them to catch, but they were flying about and checking out a nesting box.

Sometimes I get cool shots of birds in flight by accident, like this shot of a Tree Sparrow, which took off as I was photographing it. The angle of view is one that I have never before captured in any image.

Two of the swallows seemed to spend a lot of time together and I suspect that they are a breeding pair, though they were periodically buzzed by other tree swallows, which could be other potential suitors for the female. One of the swallows eventually entered the box and I suspect that the swallows are constructing a nest in it, though I didn’t see any of them actually carrying in construction material.It’s a good sign for me that spring is almost here when I see birds reappearing (even as I shovel away eight or so inches of snow that have fallen in the last 24 hours).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Wild goose chase

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Landscape, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, geese, Huntley Meadows Park, wild goose chase on March 15, 2014| 5 Comments »

Earlier this month, when the ponds were almost completely frozen over at my local marsh, I watched as some Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) zoomed across the ice at a very low altitude. It looked like they were racing each other. In the background you can see some potential spectators, but they didn’t seem to want to get caught up in a wild goose chase.

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Ice flowers

Posted in Art, Flowers, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, ice, ice flowers on March 14, 2014| 11 Comments »

In this transitional time of the year, mornings are often frosty and ice forms in some areas of the marsh in beautiful patterns that look like crystal flowers. Spring is not far off and soon these ice flowers will be replaced by the real thing.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Reflections on a favorite spot

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, beaver, beaver lodge, beaver pond, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, reflections on March 12, 2014| 9 Comments »

Do you have a favorite spot that serves as a refuge, a place to which you can retreat and just sit and absorb the natural beauty that surrounds you? This winter I found such a place at a beaver pond in one of the remote corners of my local marshland park, a location reachable only by following a thorny, informal trail that was often muddy and/or icy.

Often I would sit on one of the logs that surrounded one end of the beaver pond for extended periods of time and listen and observe. On occasion I was lucky and managed to get shots of an otter and a red fox from this spot, but mostly I would try to relax and clear my mind and reflect on life (I never managed to see any beavers here).

This spot has really beautiful light and sometimes I would marvel at the beautiful reflections that the trees across the pond would cast onto the water. I tried several times to capture those wonderful reflections with my camera, mostly without success. Last week, though, I took some photos that I like and here are a couple of them. They have an abstract quality that I find to be really appealing.

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More signs of spring

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Chrysemys picta picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, Huntley Meadows Park, painted turtle, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans), turtles on March 11, 2014| 5 Comments »

The temperatures this past weekend soared past 60 degrees (16 degrees C), bringing the turtles up from the mud on the bottom of the ponds at my local marsh. Most of the turtles crowded together on the log in the first shot appear to be Eastern Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta picta), but I think I detect at least one Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans).

Not all of turtles, however, wanted to bask in the sun in a communal environment. The second image shows a turtle that managed to find its own log and was enjoying a few moments of contemplative solitude.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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You just keep me hanging on

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, blackbird, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, male Red-winged Blackbird, red-winged blackbird, Supremes, You Just Keep me hanging On on March 10, 2014| 9 Comments »

Usually I spot male Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) perched on the top of the cattails stalks, loudly calling out, but this one decided to perch himself sidewards. It looked a little awkward, but he seemed to manage well enough as he struck a pose for me.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Shovelers in the reeds

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas clypeata, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, ducks, ducks swimming, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Shoveler, reeds, shovelers on March 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

Every time that I see the outlandishly long bill and bright colors of a male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), I can’t help but think that this is a cartoon duck, created by Walt Disney for a Technicolor movie. Of course, these ducks are real and the bills serve a useful function in helping them to strain the water for food.

The male shoveler is easier to spot, because of its more distinctive coloration, but I was happy to be able to get some shots of a female too as this couple moved in and out of the reeds in one of the ponds at my local marsh. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Northern Shoveler pairs are monogamous and remain together longer than pairs of other dabbling duck species.

One of the interesting things that I noted is that the feathers on the male’s head are not the solid green that I am used to seeing. They seem mottled and I wonder if this is some kind of transitional plumage as breeding season approaches.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Chilling on a first date

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas acuta, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, first date, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Pintail, Northern Pintail Duck on March 7, 2014| 4 Comments »

Judging from the distance between them and the awkwardness of their poses, these Northern Pintail ducks (Anas acuta) this morning at my local marsh looked like they were on a first date, getting to know each other.

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A robin feathering his nest…

Posted in Art, Birds, Music, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, American robin, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Mary Poppins, robin, Spoonful of Sugar on March 6, 2014| 7 Comments »

This past weekend it seemed like we had been invaded by a large flock of American Robins (Turdus migratorius), busily foraging in the trees and in the grass, and these words kept echoing in my mind:

“A robin feathering his nest
Has very little time to rest
While gathering his bits of twine and twig
Though quite intent in his pursuit
He has a merry tune to toot
He knows a song will move the job along.”

Folks of my generation will immediately recognize some of the lyrics of the song “A Spoonful of Sugar” from the movie Mary Poppins. In case you don’t recall the song or have never heard it, here’s a link to a clip on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8VHc49ZdP4).

The song and the movie may be seem unrealistically squeaky clean by today’s standards, but I can never get enough of its cheery optimism. It’s one of my favorite things, like silver white winters that melt into spring.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Winter dragonfly

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, dragonfly, giant dragonfly, Runnymeade, winter on March 5, 2014| 2 Comments »

I never expected to encounter a dragonfly when I went walking in the snow in my neighborhood yesterday.

My eyes were scanning the trees for birds, when right it front of me I detected the unmistakable shape of a dragonfly, a giant green dragonfly perched on a tree. I approached it quietly and was able to get this shot, my first shot of a dragonfly in a long time.

With snow still covering the ground and the temperatures below freezing, it’s hard to imagine that the real dragonflies will be appearing in a few short months.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Flying with a goose

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, goose, Huntley Meadows Park on March 3, 2014| 5 Comments »

What it would be like to fly like a bird? When I look at this photo I took recently of a Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) in flight, I feel almost like I am flying in formation with a gaggle of geese and have glanced over to look at one of my flying companions. The sad reality, of course, was that my feet were firmly planted on the ground and this goose flew by me at a relatively low altitude.

I’d still like to fly—perhaps in my dreams I can take flight.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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When crows fly

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Americn Crow, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Corvus brachyrhynchos, crow, Huntley Meadows Park on March 3, 2014| 9 Comments »

The soundtrack to my recent visits to the marsh has been the constant cacophony of a chorus of countless cawing crows. The crows seem to be everywhere, swooping in large groups from one grove of trees to another.

I have tried numerous times to get some shots of these American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) without much success, but recently I took an image that I like. The day was cloudy and heavily overcast when photographed this crow in flight. When I started working on the image the sky turned almost white. Normally, I would not have been happy with that result, but somehow this stark background works for me for this crow.

I thought about going completely black-and-white for this image, but I like the way that some of the feathers appear to be a lighter shade of brown. Is the crow molting, perhaps?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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The buck was stopped here

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, antlers, buck, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, deer, Huntley Meadows Park, Odocoileus virginianus, white-tailed deer on March 2, 2014| 14 Comments »

Hiking through a remote area of my local marshland park yesterday, I came upon the skull of a dead deer with some impressive-looking antlers. I don’t know much about deer, but the antlers are enough to tell me that it was a buck and, if I understand the counting system right, it was a six-point buck (three on each side). Initially I saw only the skull, but when I investigated the marsh grass in the surrounding area, I saw some of the larger bones of the deer.

The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the park don’t have many natural predators, so I can’t help but wonder what caused this buck’s demise. There are coyotes in the park, so I guess that is a possibility. At certain times of the year, archers also shoot deer and I have been told that police sharpshooters sometimes hunt deer at night, but my understanding is that they try to recover the bodies and turn the meat over to homeless shelters. Whatever the case, the animals and birds of the park had picked the bones clean.

I took these shots primarily to record my find, not to make any kind of artistic statement. I used a couple of elements in the area where I found the skull to prop it up so that I could photograph some of the details of this once beautiful animal.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Casting a shadow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza georgiana, Melospiza melodia, shadow, song sparrow, sparrow, swamp sparrow on March 1, 2014| 6 Comments »

At this time of the year especially, I can usually depend on seeing ducks, geese, and sparrows at my local marsh—other birds may or may not be present, but these three species are my constant companions. The ducks and the geese are often loud and occasionally obnoxious, but when the sparrows sing, it’s generally a more melodious song. The ducks and geese will often fly away when I approach, but the sparrows will just take a hop or two and continue to forage for food.

I take lots of photos of sparrows. They are usually within range and have a surprising amount of personality. Yesterday, on a cold and windy day, I captured this image of what I think is a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia). The light was pretty good and the sparrow cooperated by lifting its head without turning, resulting in a pleasant little portrait of this pretty little bird.

CORRECTION: A number of more experience bird watchers have noted that this is a Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana), not a Song Sparrow. Sorry for any confusion—this is not the first time I have misidentified a species, and certainly not the last.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Crouching heron

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, crouching heron, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on February 27, 2014| 8 Comments »

The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was standing tall on the trunk of a fallen tree last weekend and extended his neck as he looked all around. When he bent down and leaned forward, I knew he was getting ready to take off and I managed to get this shot just before his liftoff.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Precarious perch

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on February 26, 2014| 7 Comments »

When the Great Blue Heron landed high in a limbless, skinny tree, I suspected he would not be there long—it was like he was perched on top of a flagpole. I managed to capture of series of action shots as he pushed off from the tree and launched himself into a dive.

The shot below give you an idea of the height of the tree in which he was perched. It looked to be dead and mostly rotted and was in the center of a marshy field. It was early in the morning and there was heavy cloud cover, which is why the sky looks so white. The photos were mostly silhouetted, but I tried to lighten the shadows a bit to reveal some details.

The next shot shows the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) a split second before he took off. He has extended his wings and is leaning forward. Obviously he had received the call from the control tower that he was cleared for takeoff.

This final shot suggests that the heron propelled himself forward with his legs before using his wings, ending up in a somewhat unusual position.

I was able to track the heron until he disappeared into the trees, which let the buffer in my camera catch up with me—as you might suspect, I was shooting as fast as my camera would fire.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Happy little bluebird

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, bluebird, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Eastern Bluebird, Huntley Meadows Park, Sialia sialis, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Wizard of Oz on February 25, 2014| 5 Comments »

I saw a flash of blue in the distance and I smiled, for I knew it was an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). Bluebirds have that effect on me. Why?

I suppose that I can blame the Wizard of Oz, a movie that I watched repeatedly during my childhood. Who could forget Dorothy singing of happy little bluebirds flying beyond the rainbow?

“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?”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Indifferent to the snow

Posted in Art, Photography, Portraits, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Buddha, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, indifferent, Runnymeade, snow, winter on February 24, 2014| 4 Comments »

Snow sometimes causes me stress. I worry about the safety of the road conditions and how long it will take for me to get to work. I feel anxious as I shovel out my car and the sidewalk in front of my townhouse.

This statue in the garden of one of my neighbors is a visual reminder that I can adopt a different mindset. I can remain calm on the inside and indifferent to the cares of the world. The snow will melt and spring will come when it is time.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Almost stopping action

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, goose, Huntley Meadows Park on February 23, 2014| 8 Comments »

What happens if you try to photograph a bird in flight with a shutter speed of 1/100 second? Under most circumstances, you get a really blurry image. However, if you can track your subject by panning the camera, you can freeze (or in this case, almost freeze) the action and as a bonus you get a really cool background.

It was pretty early in the morning and there was not a lot of light when I took this shot. Even though my camera was at ISO 400 and f/6.3 aperture, I knew that the shutter speed was not going to be fast enough to stop the action, given that I was in aperture-priority mode. That’s the main reason that I resorted to trying this panning technique. Getting the right speed for a pan is little hit-or-miss and I never know for sure how well it will work until I look at the results.

I’m pretty happy with this result, because I managed to capture a sense of motion in a still shot, a sense that is accentuated by the motion blur of the wings, as well as by the feeling of movement in the background.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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February spider

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, arachnid, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, spider on February 22, 2014| 6 Comments »

I was a little surprised yesterday when a small spider crossed my path when I was walking on the boardwalk at my local marsh. Sure, temperatures had warmed up and it was over 50 degrees outside (10 degrees C), but I didn’t think there were any spiders around at this time of the year. This is definitely my first spider of 2014.

Expecting to photograph birds, not bugs (yes, I know a spider technically is an arachnid, not a bug), I had equipped my camera with a telephoto lens, not a macro lens, and wasn’t even carrying my macro lens. The spider was moving too, so I used what I had and shot these photos at 300mm and cropped them.

You can probably tell that the boardwalk at the marsh is made of a synthetic material and not real wood, which means that I am not at risk of getting splinters when I kneel on it as I often do. This spider, whose species I cannot identify, was pretty small. The visible head of a screw used to hold in place the planks of boardwalk help to give you an idea of the relative size of the spider. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that the third photo is the same image as the first one, but cropped less severely.

In a few short months, I hope to see (and photograph) a whole lot more spiders in even greater detail, but the first one of the year is always special.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Early birds

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, eagle, early birds, Great Blue Heron, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon on February 22, 2014| 10 Comments »

Early yesterday morning, I was so focused on a Great Blue Heron that I spotted high in a tree that I didn’t even notice that there was a Bald Eagle in an adjacent tree until it took off almost right in front of me. Nearby, a female Belted Kingfisher loudly announced her presence with her unmistakable rattling call.

The sky was covered with heavy clouds and the forecast called for thunderstorms, which meant that lighting conditions were less than optimal for taking photos in a wooded area. Still, it felt great to be outdoors on the trails after a week of constrained activity thanks to our recent snowstorm.

I hadn’t seen a live Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) at my local marsh in quite some time, so I was excited when I caught sight of the heron, perched on broken-off tree at the edge of one of the marshy fields. The heron was almost a silhouette against the sky, but its shape is very easy to recognize when you see it in profile.

As I was creeping forward to get a clearer shot, I was startled when a large bird flew right across my field of view—I knew almost immediately that it was a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), although it too was mostly a shadowy silhouette as I viewed it through the branches of the trees. I was able to react quickly enough to get off a few shots before the eagle flew out of sight.

A short distance away, a female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) was perched on the trunk of a rotted tree, intently staring down at the shallow water of the marsh, looking for prey. That water prevented me from getting closer to her, but I did manage to capture her distinctive pose through the branches.

I am an early bird by habit and it was great to be outdoors in the “wilds” of my suburban marsh to see what other early birds I could find.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Turf war negotiations

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, crow, crows, Huntley Meadows Park, turf war, turkey vulture, vulture on February 20, 2014| 19 Comments »

Trying to avoid an all-out turf war, the leaders of the Crows and Vultures agreed to meet, but the negotiations quickly started to break down. What happened?

The leaders had agreed to meet alone in the middle of a snow-covered field.

However, the Crow leader had brought reinforcements with him and the Vulture found himself outnumbered.

Not wanting to show any fear, the Vulture leader decided to flex his muscles and extended his mighty wings. The Crows were not impressed and would not agree to any compromises.The Vulture leader started to feel a little uncomfortable as he felt someone creeping up behind him and turned quickly to face the potential Crow assassin.

Clearly, these negotiations were not going anywhere and the Vulture leader headed back to announce to his subordinates that a full-scale turf war with the Crows was about to begin.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Remembering a blue heron

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, blue heron, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on February 19, 2014| 8 Comments »

As many of you know from my posting last week, I recently came upon a dead body of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and several of us who regularly visit this marsh have wondered if perhaps this was the young blue heron who hung around the boardwalk throughout the fall and early winter. We had previously noted that this heron was not very proficient at catching food and worried that it seemed to lack basic survival skills.

I took a lot of photos of that young heron, whom I encountered repeatedly during my early morning visits to the marsh, and decided to post a few photographs from late December and early January. I’ll never know for sure if this heron survived the winter, but these images help remind me of some of the special moments that we shared.

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Pink Star

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, greenhouse, Tamron 180mm macro lens, tropical plant on February 18, 2014| 5 Comments »

Although it has started to get a bit warmer, lots of snow remain, snow that has lost its initial pristine beauty and is now flecked with brown road dirt and various chemicals. I feel a need for color, so I am posting some shots I took last month of a tropical plant in the greenhouse at my local county-run garden.

One of the challenges in shooting in this small space was the often cluttered background. I tried to frame these shots in such a way that background is not too distracting. I have no idea what kind of a plant this is, but that doesn’t bother me, for it is the color, texture, and shape of the plant that I find most interesting.

It won’t be long before I’ll see bursts of color like this outdoors—I can hardly wait.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Mallard couple

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas platyrhynchos, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, mallard, mallard duck, mallard ducks on February 18, 2014| 3 Comments »

Valentine’s Day is past, a holiday that celebrates romantic love through the giving of cards, flowers, and candy. Yesterday, though, I was witness to a deeper, more intimate sense of love and devotion as I observed a couple of Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos).

Side by side, almost touching, they moved slowly though the water in synchronized movements, with one dipping its bill in the water and the other keeping watch. They seemed so happy together, alone in their own little world, amidst a flock of loudly honking Canada geese.

It may be my imagination, but they look like they are smiling in this photo.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Hungry chickadee

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Carolina Chickadee, chickadee, feeding, hungry, Huntley Meadows Park, Poecile carolinensis on February 17, 2014| 4 Comments »

There may not have been a lot of seeds in the dried-out marsh plants, but this little chickadee, which I am pretty sure is a Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), seemed determined to get every last one.

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Peekaboo bird

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, peekaboo, song sparrow, sparrow on February 16, 2014| 8 Comments »

Sometimes the birds play games with me as I try to photograph them—usually it is “hide and seek.” This little Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), though, seemed to be playing “peekaboo,” as the bird would hide its head and then pop up and look at me, as if to announce, “Here I am.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Hungry cardinal

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, feeder, Northern cardinal, Runnymeade on February 15, 2014| 8 Comments »

As I was walking through the snow in a wooded area behind some of the townhouses in my neighborhood, a flash or bright red caught my eye and I knew immediately that it was a male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), one of my favorite birds.

I stalked him as he moved from tree to tree until he eventually landed on this feeder that was hanging from the second-story deck of one of my neighbors. I really like the industrial look of the feeder and think it adds a nice contrast to softer, less distinct feathers of the cardinal.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Silhouette at sunset

Posted in Art, Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, silhouette, sunset on February 14, 2014| 9 Comments »

Whenever I am at my local marsh at sunset, I am alert for ducks and geese in the air. I have a goal of catching them in silhouette against the backdrop of the colorful sky. I still haven’t gotten the shot I am looking for, but here is one of my recent attempts.

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Close encounter with a muskrat

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus on February 13, 2014| 7 Comments »

For the second time in two weeks I spotted a muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) at my local marshland park this past Monday and I was able to get some shots at even closer range that the last time. (At my closest, I was well within ten feet (three meters) of the little muskrat). I was on a boardwalk above the level of the water and I hung over the edge in an effort to get some shots at close to eye level.

The muskrat was a really small one and paid very little attention to me. It concentrated in pulling some of the vegetation out of the plants at water’s edge and them chewing on them while in the water. Once again, I was amazed at the dexterity of the front paws, which functioned as hands to get the food into the muskrat’s mouth.

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