Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged American robin, bathing robin, Canon 7D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, robin, Tamron 150-600mm, Turdus migratorius, Woodbridge VA on December 24, 2025| 3 Comments »
Last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I spotted a small group of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) clustered around a large puddle. Some of the birds took their turns drinking from the puddle, while others took advantage of the opportunity to take a bath. Some of the birds merely flapped about a bit in the water, but the robin in the photo below seemed to enjoy soaking in the cold water.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American robin, bathing robin, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, robin, Tamron 150-600mm, Turdus migratorius, Woodbridge VA on November 9, 2017| 8 Comments »
There were lots of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, including one that decided to take a bath in a puddle in the middle of the path. A couple of years ago I probably would not have bothered to identify the bird as an “American Robin,” but now I know that there is a European Robin, which is a completely different bird.
The first shot of these three is the sharpest and I like the way that you can see the succession of puddles and the robin’s reflection. I am equally drawn, however, to the action shots with the water splashing into the air. The light was pretty limited at the time and only afterwards did I realize that my shutter speed had dropped to 1/125 of a second. That is why you can see some motion blur in the second shot, an effect that I think helps to give a dynamic feel to the image. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to include the third shot, but decided that I liked the out of focus robin in the background, whose peaceful pose is in sharp contrast with that of the frenetic flailing of the bathing robin.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 