I really like the different types and colors of light in this shot of a portion of Brussel’s nightime skyline, taken from an overlook near the city’s Central Train Station.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Archive for the ‘Winter’ Category
Looking over Brussels
Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Urban, Winter, tagged belgium, brussels, Canon A620, city hall, night photography on January 16, 2014| 6 Comments »
Brussels moon
Posted in Art, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Urban, Winter, tagged belgium, brussels, Canon A620, moon, night, night photography, statue on January 15, 2014| 3 Comments »
It rained most of the day in Brussels, but finally the skies cleared a little in the evening and the moon was visible from time to time, peeking through the clouds. I enjoy walking through this old city at night and observing the interplay of the light and shadows.
It’s a fun challenge to try and capture the effects of light at night with an older point-and-shoot digital camera and I am always looking for solid objects against which to lean to steady myself.
This was my most “artistic” shot of the evening, an attempt to balance the effect of the weak light of the moon with the artificial lights that illuminated this statue.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Back in Brussels
Posted in Architecture, Art, Landscape, Photography, Urban, Winter, tagged belgium, brussels, Canon A620, city hall, snow on January 13, 2014| 8 Comments »
I am drawn to the colors and shapes and patterns in this image of the roof of the Brussels City Hall, one of the iconic buildings of the central square of this beautiful city.
I am back in Brussels for a brief business trip and have not yet had a chance to shoot any new photos. I took this shot last year in mid-January, when the city was covered with a light coating of snow. This year, it looks like it’s a bit warmed and I was shocked to see some sunshine yesterday, the day of our arrival. In my experience, the skies are usually gray and cloud-covered and it is unusual to see the sun at this time of the year.
I hope to have some new photos of Brussels soon, work permitting, which you should be seeing for the next few days.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Hunkering down
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Great Blue Heron, heron, hunkering down, Huntley Meadows Park on January 12, 2014| 8 Comments »
It concerns me that this young Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) at my local marsh may be too tolerant of people and desensitized to the reality of genuine predators that could do it harm. I worry too about its ability to catch enough food to survive, especially if this is the same young heron that I observed during the fall striking in vain at leaves in the water.
On a cold, wet day this past week, the heron was hunkered down on a log not far from the boardwalk. Other than a few movements of its head as it watched me, the heron didn’t budge a bit as I snapped away and even stayed in place when a noisy group of people walked by us.
When I see this little heron, I try to get a few pictures and then move on, thankful for the photo opportunity, but not wanting to reinforce its comfort level with the presence of people.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Icescapes
Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, fog, gray, Huntley Meadows Park, ice, landscape, monochromatic on January 11, 2014| 9 Comments »
Yesterday’s cloudy, rainy, foggy day made it a little tough to take photos, but I like the effect it had on the landscape, creating almost monochromatic scenes of different shades of gray. This is an unfamiliar style of shooting for me, so I played around a bit, trying to capture both a wide view of the marsh, and some close-views of isolated areas.
The snow here is gone now, but the ice is still hanging on.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Branching out
Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, oak, pinecones, Runnymeade, snow, winter on January 10, 2014| 5 Comments »
I’m not sure if and when we will see more snow in Northern Virginia this winter, so I am posting a couple of shots as an homage to the departed snow.
As you can tell, I was looking up a lot when I walked through my neighborhood and captured somewhat similar images of the snow that had accumulated on a pine tree and an oak tree.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
My little chickadee
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Carolina Chickadee, chickadee, Huntley Meadows Park, Poecile carolinensis on January 10, 2014| 7 Comments »
Winter is the time of the year when I am finally able to photograph some of the small birds that are with us all year, but are hidden in the leafy branches and undergrowth during the other seasons, like this Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). Generally I see these little birds at the feeders at the Visitor Center at my local marshland park, so I was really happy when this chickadee posed for me in a more natural setting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
The red of winter
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, Northern cardinal on January 9, 2014| 4 Comments »
Winter days are often so drab and gray that any splashes of color are especially welcome during this time of year.
I am always happy to encounter the cheerful red color of male Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), which brighten any landscape in which they find themselves. During our recent cold snap, I took this shot of a cardinal foraging in a cattail field covered in snow and ice. I think that he was busy extracting the center portions of the rose hips. (I often see the abandoned shells of rose hips scattered about, so I figure the cardinals don’t eat the entire fruit.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Skull of a beaver
Posted in animals, Art, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, beaver, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Castor canadensis, Huntley Meadows Park, North American Beaver on January 8, 2014| 11 Comments »
On New Year’s Day, as I was hiking with a fellow photographer to one of my favorite spots at the local marsh, she spotted this skull, flipped upside down on a mossy log. Had it been placed on the log by a fellow hiker or had it been abandoned there by another animal?
Judging from the length of the one remaining tooth, it looks like this is a skull of a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis). There is no way for me to tell how this animal died, but the tooth marks around the eye socket suggest that something has been gnawing on the skull.
We both took some photographs of the skull and then hurried along, hoping to see a live beaver at its lodge. We saw the lodge, but, alas, did not see a living beaver that day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Downy details
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Downy Woodpecker, Huntley Meadows Park, Picoides pubescens, woodpecker on January 7, 2014| 8 Comments »
Like most Downy Woodpeckers, this little male woodpecker started spiraling his way up the tree as soon as he landed on it. Then to my surprise, he worked his way back down the tree and stopped at eye level, where he stayed long enough for me to take a number of shots and even make a few adjustments in between the shots.
I really like Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens). Their high energy and acrobatic activities are a constant source of interest for me as I watch them at work in the trees and in the cattails. I’ve usually had a tough time, though, getting an uncluttered shot of a Downy Woodpecker.
I took this shot in an area where there were mostly young trees, which made it easier for me to isolate the woodpecker as he moved about and to slowly move closer and fill the frame with the little bird. The area was shaded, so I ended up using my pop-up flash to add a little fill light. I opened up the aperture as wide as I could, which had the effect of blurring out the background.
I ended up with a portrait-like shot of the Downy Woodpecker that I really like. Click on the image to see it in higher resolution.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Fox trot
Posted in animals, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, fox, fox trot, foxtrot, Huntley Meadows Park, red fox, Vulpes vulpes on January 6, 2014| 31 Comments »
This past weekend I caught a glimpse of a fox in motion at Huntley Meadows Park—I’m pretty sure it was doing the foxtrot. I was staring across a mostly frozen beaver pond, when suddenly this red fox (Vulpes vulpes) burst into my field of view. It was running slowly around one edge of the pond, heading in the direction of a wooded area.
I didn’t have much time to react, so I had to make do with the existing camera settings. The exposure was dialed in about right and the shutter speed was fast enough. What I didn’t realize at that moment, though, was that I was in servo mode, because I had been shooting some geese in flight, so I was happy that I somehow managed to lock the focus on the moving fox pretty well. I was a little chagrined after the fact to realize that my zoom lens had not been fully extended—the images were shot at about 200mm on a 70-300mm lens.
I did get some action shots of the fox, but the first image is my favorite. The fox had paused for a split second and was looking back in the direction from which it had come and there is a lot of facial detail.
It’s especially fascinating for me to see the position of the bushy tail when the fox was moving. Often it seems like the tail is parallel to the ground. It’s cool too that I was able to catch the fox in mid-jump, with its feet almost entirely in the air. The snow is mostly gone from the ground today, so I am particularly thankful that I was able to capture some images of this brief encounter with the fox in a wintery scene.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Portrait of a sparrow in the snow
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, bird in snow, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, snow, song sparrow, sparrow on January 5, 2014| 11 Comments »
Although I already posted a photo earlier today of a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) in the snow, I came across one I liked even more as I was going through yesterday’s images. This sparrow (and I am never certain of my sparrow identifications) seemed to be posing for me. Somehow I was able to capture details in its eyes that I have never seen before.
After our brief portrait session, the sparrow hurried back to work.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Sparrow in the snow
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, song sparrow, sparrow on January 5, 2014| 5 Comments »
We don’t get much snow here is Northern Virginia, so I was really excited to visit my marshland park yesterday to see what birds and animals were active. There were lots of crows and Canada Geese, but I was mostly attracted by the frenetic activity of the sparrows.
The sparrows moved around quickly in the snow and on the ice, foraging for food in the dried out vegetation in the cattail field. This little sparrow, which I think is a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), paused for a split second and lifted its head, which made it possible for me to get this shot. (Most of my other shots have the sparrow’s head in the shadows or buried in the vegetation).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Silent mockingbird
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Franconia, Mimus polyglottos, mockingbird, Northern Mockingbird on January 4, 2014| 12 Comments »
Although the sun was shining brightly yesterday, it seemed to be generating little heat and the gusts of wind made staying outdoors uncomfortable after a short while. Even the birds in the neighborhood seemed to have taken shelter, with the exception of this Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) that I was able to photograph as it foraged for food.
At other times of the year, the cheerful, energetic calls of the mockingbird announce its presence long before my eyes detect it. This mockingbird, however, was completely silent and seemed to be minimizing its expenditure of energy as it sought to sustain itself in the frigid temperatures.
Returning indoors to the warmth of my house, I pondered anew the question of how these fragile creatures are able to survive during the winter. (It’s about 13 degrees outside (minus 10 C) as I make this posting.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
I am a shoveler too
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas clypeata, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, duck, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Shoveler, shoveler on January 3, 2014| 8 Comments »
The weathermen thought the snowstorm that is now dumping a lot of snow on the Northeast would skirt around us, but they were wrong—I ended up shoveling a couple of inches of the white stuff yesterday evening and this morning. So, I decided to post this photo of a male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) that I took on New Year’s Day, in honor of all of the shovelers in the north that will be busy today.
I remember well the first time I saw a Northern Shoveler last winter. At first I thought it was a Mallard, but then I got a look at the elongated bill, which still seems cartoonish to me. In this image, I really like the way that you can see the shape of the duck’s bill in the reflection in the water.
Our storm started out with rain and then turned to snow and everything is now frozen solid. With strong gusts of wind and a current temperature of 18 degrees (about minus 8 C), I may stick close to home today, but hope to get some shots of the snow.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Getting my ducks in a row
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Anas carolinensis, Anas clypeata, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Green-winged teal, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Shoveler on January 2, 2014| 9 Comments »
The title for this visual pun immediately came to mind when I first saw the photo—I can’t help myself when it comes to puns.
For the record, the colorful duck in the foreground is a male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) and the two in the background are male Green-Winged Teals (Anas carolinensis).
As the new year begins, should I be getting my ducks in a row?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Making an entrance
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, making entrance, splashy arrival on January 2, 2014| 5 Comments »
Some birds (and some people I know) really like to make an entrance. This Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) made a big splashy arrival in the marsh that seemed to be intended to catch the attention of the spectators already there.
They did not seem to be impressed.
Click on the photo to see a higher resolution view.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Cattail dawn
Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, cattails, dawn, Huntley Meadows Park, new year on January 1, 2014| 6 Comments »
As the new year dawns, it seems appropriate to post this photo I took last weekend at my local marsh, as the early morning sun peeked through the trees and cast its first rays of light onto the cattails.
Best wishes to all for a happy, safe, and blessed 2014.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Dressed up in the cold
Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, Alexandria VA, blackbird, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, female Red-winged Blackbird, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird on December 31, 2013| 6 Comments »
Have you ever seen a bird that looked like it was wearing a costume? When I caught sight of this female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) in the cattails last week, it looked to me like she had donned a large head scarf and an additional coat of feathers as protection from the cold.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Taking off in the rain
Posted in Art, 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, rain on December 30, 2013| 15 Comments »
Do you like long walks in the rain? Although this sounds like a question for an on-line dating service, it’s really about your style of photography.
I enjoy taking wildlife photos in the rain, if the rain is not coming down too hard and if it is not too windy. Of course, I can’t control the intensity of the rain, so I have various levels of protection. Generally, I’ll try to hold an umbrella in one hand and shoot one-handed, steadying my shot by leaning against the umbrella handle, if possible. If the rain starts to fall harder I’ll cover up my camera inside my raincoat or sometimes will pull out a plastic trash bag for additional protection until the rain slows down.
Last week, I was walking in the rain at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marshland park, when I came upon a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), standing on the boardwalk. I approached the heron quietly and stopped. The heron was looking right at me and somehow I knew that it was going to take off.
I dropped to one knee, turned the camera sideways, and pulled way back on the zoom lens, hoping to fit the heron into the frame. This image was shot at 75mm on a 70-300mm lens, so you can tell that I was relatively close to the heron. The other settings were f5, 1/400 sec., and ISO 500 for those who might be interested in the technical aspects of the shot.
It’s always interesting to see which birds are active in the rain and I did get some shots of other birds that day, but I will save them for another blog posting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
European Starling
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, American Acclimitization Society, Cameron Run, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, European Starling, Shakespeare, starling, Sturnus vulgaris on December 29, 2013| 12 Comments »
Starlings are supposed to be common birds, but I never knew what they looked like up close, so I initially had a lot of trouble identifying the odd-looking bird in these photos that I took in early December.
I’m pretty sure now that it is a European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), a bird that was first introduced into North America in the 19th century by Shakespeare enthusiasts, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. What does Shakespeare have to do with it?
Well, Shakespeare mentions them in one of his plays. Steve Mirsky explained the reference in an article in Scientific American entitled “Shakespeare to Blame for Introduction of European Starlings to U.S.”
“In the late 1590s Shakespeare noted the mimicking ability of the starling while writing Henry IV, Part 1. Hotspur is contemplating driving King Henry nuts by having a starling repeat the name of Hotspur’s brother-in-law Mortimer, whom Henry refuses to ransom out of prisoner status. “Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ ” Hotspur whines.”
In 1871, a group called the American Acclimatization Society was formed in New York, dedicated to introducing European plants and animals and birds into North America, according to Wikipedia. The group’s chairman was an avid admirer of Shakespeare and is said by some to have desired to introduce every bird mentioned by the playwright. The Cornell Lab notes that the more than 200 million starlings now in North American are descendants of the original 100 starlings released in New York’s Central Park in the early 189o’s. Yikes!
I am always curious about the origin of bird names and learned from the Cornell Lab that the starlings got their name because their wings are short and pointed, making them look rather like small, four-pointed stars when they are flying.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
I want to fly like an eagle
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park on December 27, 2013| 7 Comments »
My heartbeat accelerates every time I see a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), a combination of patriotism and awe at the power and beauty of this majestic bird.
Normally the eagles are soaring high in the sky, making it almost impossible for me to get a decent shot. Last Saturday, though, one of them seem to be hunting and circled around me a couple of times at a somewhat lower altitude, which allowed me to get some shots of the eagle in different flight positions.
I took these shots from the same spot at my marshland park where I recently saw an otter, a fox, and a raccoon. If only the park would let me pitch a tent in there.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Frog in late December
Posted in Amphibians, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, frog, Huntley Meadows Park, leopard frog, Lithobates sphenocephalus, Southern Leopard frog on December 26, 2013| 5 Comments »
With the temperature in the 20’s (-5 C) the last few days, it’s hard to remember that we had record-breaking temperatures less than a week ago, when temperatures soared to 72 degrees (22 C).
During a trip to my marsh on one of the warm days last Saturday, I was a little shocked to see some frogs out of the water, which not long before had been covered with a thin sheet of ice. I thought they would be in a hibernation state by now. The frogs were in the reeds and the ones that I could see were Southern Leopard frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus), like the one in this photo.
I figured that frogs buried themselves completely in the mud like turtles do, but was surprised to learn that is not the case. According to an article in Scientific American, aquatic frogs, like the leopard frog, do hibernate underwater, but they would suffocate if buried in the mud. Instead they remain on top of the mud or only partially buried.
In addition to the frogs, a lot of small turtles took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and could be seen sunning themselves on logs in the marsh. Unfortunately, there were no cameo appearances by dragonflies—my fellow photographer and blogger Walter Sanford and I searched diligently for Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies, which we had seen earlier in December, but we came up empty-handed.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Joy to the world
Posted in Birds, Christmas, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Carolina Wren, Christmas, Christmas Bells, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, joy, Thryothorus ludovicianus on December 25, 2013| 3 Comments »
“Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing…”
In this case, “nature” is a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) that I photographed one recent morning, singing with all of its might.
On Christmas Day, many of us recall the message of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Yet sometimes I feel like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow must have felt when he wrote the words, “And in despair I bowed my head. “There is no peace on earth,” I said. “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.”
My prayer this Christmas Day, is that we will all be encouraged and blessed and filled with love for one another. Longfellow did not conclude his poem, “Christmas Bells” in despair, but instead ended with these words:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Merry Christmas to all of you.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Not there yet
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park on December 24, 2013| 5 Comments »
It’s a bit of a cliché, but I really want to capture an image of geese in flight against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset.
There is certainly no shortage of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) around here and they seem to take off and land so often at my local marsh that it sometimes seem as busy as a regional airport. Beautiful sunsets, though, are harder to come by and many of our days seem to simply fade into darkness. Getting the geese to fly in a proper formation is an additional complication.
This is my most recent attempt at my aspirational image of geese at sunset. There are a few streaks of color and the formation is a little ragged. It’s not quite what I envisioned in my mind—I’ll keep working on bringing that image to life.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
National Christmas Tree
Posted in Christmas, Travel, Urban, Winter, tagged Canon A620, Christmas, National Christmas Tree, Washington D.C. on December 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Last night I made a trip into Washington D.C. with some friends to see the National Christmas Tree. Despite the fact that I have lived in this area for more than 20 years, this was the first time that I had seen it live—I have seen the tree-lighting ceremony on the news many times.
The large Christmas tree, which is a live tree, is surrounded by 56 smaller decorated live trees, representing the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the unincorporated territories of the United States. Underneath the tree was an elaborate set-up of model trains, reminding me of my childhood.
It’s the day before Christmas and most of us are in high gear for the coming holy day. Best wishes to all of you for a joyous Christmas and a wonderful and blessed New Year.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Flying kingfisher
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Belted Kingfisher, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon on December 23, 2013| 4 Comments »
This past week I have observed female Belted Kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) at a couple of different locations at my marshland park and tried to capture them in flight as they dove into the water from their perches in the trees. It was challenging, because the kingfishers were pretty far away, but I did get a couple of decent shots (with a fair amount of cropping).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Beaver at dusk
Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, beaver, Canon 50D, canon 70-300, Castor canadensis, dusk, Huntley Meadows Park, North American Beaver on December 22, 2013| 2 Comments »
The beavers have moved out of the lodge right under the boardwalk that made it possible for me to get relatively close-up shots of them last winter. This weekend I was determined to get a photo of them and had to wait until it was almost dark to catch sight of one of them swimming in the distance. There was just enough light to focus and I had to crank up the ISO to 1600 (with the resulting increase in noise), but I was able to get a recognizable image.
This completes an incredible week for me of photographing mammals in the wilds of my suburban marshland oasis—I managed to get shots of an otter, a raccoon, a fox, and a beaver. I also saw a few deer, but didn’t get any photos of them. What’s next? I have been told that we have coyotes in the park, but I refuse to follow the advice I heard that the best way to draw in the coyote is to go walking in the park with a small dog after dark. Meanwhile, I can only hope that I am fortunate enough to see the same animals again and get better shots.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Rocky Raccoon
Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Beatles, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, Procyon lotor, raccoon, Rocky Raccoon on December 21, 2013| 7 Comments »
Yesterday, I returned to the pond where I had previously seen the river otter, hoping to see it again. As I stood silently at the water’s edge, I heard something pretty big moving about in the underbrush, something that seemed to be bigger than an otter.
I was surprised to see a raccoon emerge—generally they are nocturnal and previously I had seen them only at twilight. The raccoon seemed to be rooting around, looking for food. He didn’t seem to be aware of my presence and as I watched it move about, I managed to get a few clear shots before it moved away into the deeper brush.
It you are of a certain age, you remember the fun little Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon”—every time that I see a raccoon, that song comes to mind.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Winter wren
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Carolina Wren, Huntley Meadows Park, Thryothorus ludovicianus, Troglodytes hiemalis, Winter Wren, wren on December 20, 2013| 26 Comments »
Peering through my telephoto lens at this tiny bird, I couldn’t help but smile—its energetic personality, round body, and tiny wings and tail were cartoon-like. It looked like a wren, but it certainly didn’t resemble the Carolina Wrens that I am used to seeing.
I did a little research and have concluded that this is probably a Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, these little birds are “incomparably energetic in voice” and per unit weight deliver their songs with ten times more power than a crowing rooster. I can only imagine groups of scientists with tiny scales and microphones conducting the research to back up that statement.
I noted on the statistics page of my blog that this will be posting number 1,000. I never imagined how much I would come to enjoy the process of blogging when I started this blog on July 7, 2012 with a photo of a Blue Dasher dragonfly. The support and encouragement from innumerable readers has helped to sustain me on my journey into photography. Thanks to all of you.
The journey continues.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Early morning heron reflection
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, early morning, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, reflection on December 19, 2013| 19 Comments »
In the weak early morning light, the sky and the water merged together, providing an uncluttered backdrop for this portrait of a Great Blue Heron.
I’ve taken quite a few photos of Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias), but rarely have I encountered one as cooperative as this one was early on Monday morning. He looked to be cold and may have been trying to snooze as he huddled near the edge of the boardwalk. He let me get pretty close to him and didn’t seem to object to my presence, though he did follow me with his eyes. As a result of his tolerance, I was able to capture more detail in the heron’s feathers than I usually can manage.
After a few shots, I left him in peace to catch a few more winks.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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Mike Powell 