Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Cercyonis pegala, Common Wood Nymph, Common Wood Nymph butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 180mm on August 13, 2017| 4 Comments »
One of the little woodland butterflies that I see only rarely is the Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala). I was therefore pretty excited when I spotted this beauty on Friday while it was perched on a tree at Huntley Meadows Park. The yellow patch is so distinctive that it was pretty easy for me to identify this one, unlike so many other woodland butterflies that are mostly brown with different patterns and colors of eye spots on their wings.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Bees, Flowers, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged bee, bumblebee, Canon 50D, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, pollen, Poolesville MD, sunflower, Tamron 180mm on August 11, 2017| 12 Comments »
How much pollen can a bee transport at one time? As it circled the inside of a sunflower, this bee filled the pollen baskets on its hind legs with so much bright yellow pollen that I was afraid it would not be able to lift off and fly away. In addition to the very full pollen baskets, which looked like cotton candy to me, the bee was virtually covered with grains of pollen. My fears proved to be unfounded, and the overladen bee was able to carry away its golden treasure.
I think this bee is a bumblebee, though I am no expert on the subject of bees. According to Wikipedia, certain species of bees, including bumblebees and honeybees, have pollen baskets (also known as corbiculae) that are used to harvest pollen. Other bee species have scopae (Latin for “brooms”), which are usually just a mass of hair on the hind legs that are used to transport pollen.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Pondhawk, Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly, Erythemis simplicicollis, male Eastern Pondhawk, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Poolesville MD, Tamron 180mm on August 10, 2017| 15 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but if I were an insect with large, fragile wings, I think that I would avoid perching on vegetation with large thorns. This male Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis), however, is obviously bolder and more skilled than I am. With precision flying skills matching the parking abilities of an inner city driver, he has managed to squeeze into a space that seems barely large enough to accommodate him.
Pointless perching—that seems to be the point.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Flowers, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Poolesville MD, sunflowers on August 9, 2017| 9 Comments »
When you are confronted with a field of sunflowers, what’s the best way to photograph them? That was my challenge this past weekend at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland. Before I arrived, I though I would get a wide-angle view, filled with the bright yellows of the tall sunflowers. The reality was a little underwhelming, because the sunflowers had not grown very tall this year and many of them were past their prime.
So instead of going wide, I decided to move in closer and try to capture some of the details of the sunflowers. Here are a few images of single sunflowers in different stages of development. Some of the images are a little abstract and hopefully challenge readers to think beyond the normal shapes and colors that they associate with sunflowers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on August 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I didn’t see the Green Heron (Butorides virescens) actually catch his breakfast last Friday morning at Huntley Meadows Park, but when he climbed up onto a protruding branch he gave me a quick look at the fish before swallowing it.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, mating Red-footed Cannibalflies, Promachus rufipes, Red-footed Cannibalfly, Tamron 150-600mm on August 7, 2017| 5 Comments »
Although it looks a bit like a tug of war, I think that these two Red-footed Cannibalflies (Promachus rufipes) actually were mating when I spotted them on Friday at Huntley Meadows Park. (Don’t ask me any anatomical questions–I am not sure how it works for them.)
This photo was taken from a pretty good distance away with my 150-600mm lens and is a little soft, but I thought I’d post it today as an accompaniment to my earlier macro shot of what I think is a female Red-footed Cannibalfly.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Promachus rufipes, Red-footed Cannibalfly, Tamron 180mm on August 7, 2017| 2 Comments »
A Red-footed Cannibalfly (Promachus rufipes) is one of the coolest and creepiest insects that you can encounter in the wild. A type of robber fly, Red-footed Cannibalflies usually feed on other insects, but they reportedly are capable of taking down a hummingbird. I spotted this “beauty” during a visit this past weekend to McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland after a fellow photographer pointed it out to me.
Red-footed Cannibalflies are special to me for an unusual reason—a posting that I did about one in August 2013 has proven to be my most widely viewed normal blog posting over time. (I did have a couple of postings about the rescue of an injured bald eagle that received a huge boost in readership when linked in local media reports, but that spike was a one-time occurrence and I tend to exclude those posts in my calculations.) The enduring popularity of that posting is a bit of a mystery to me. Yes, the subject is fascinating, but the accompanying photos are not really my best work.
Why then do I keep getting viewers for this posting? The posting, for example, had 512 views in 2015 and 612 views in 2016. During this year, there have already been 211 views, including 39 in August. I don’t know what kind of algorithms Google and the other search engines use in deciding how to rank order listings when searches are conducted, but somehow I have frequently made it onto the first page of the listings when a search is done for “red-footed cannibalfly.”
I receive offers all of the time for something called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that promises me that, after I have paid a fee, my posting will rise higher on the Google results. I am not sure that it would be possible for me to get any higher on the list than I already am—I think that my posting has on occasion been as high as fourth on the Google results.
I am a little amused that my name may have become associated with Red-footed Cannibalflies in the minds of some viewers after a Google search. On the whole, readership statistics remain a mystery to me. I can sometimes guess which of my postings will have a good number of viewers when originally posted, but I am clueless in figuring out which ones will have additional views after a couple of days have passed.
For better or for worse, my postings seem to have a life of their own. I never know when or how a viewer somewhere in the world may stumble across my words and images. Wow! How cool is that?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alex, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm on August 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »
This majestic osprey (Pandion haliaetus) was keeping a close watch on a fellow photographer and me as we pointed our long lenses in its direction as it perched high in a tree early one morning this weekend at Huntley Meadows Park.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Canon SX50, Danaus plexippus, Indigo Bunting, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, monarch butterfly, Passerina cyanea, Poolesville MD, sunflowers on August 6, 2017| 14 Comments »
In the first sunflower field that we visited yesterday morning at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, many of the sunflowers were drooping because of the weight of their seeds. They may not have been very photogenic, but the birds and butterflies seemed to love them, like this Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) and this Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) that I spotted among the sunflowers.
Several photographer friends and I made the trip to the sunflower fields in Poolesville, Maryland, hoping to see endless rows of tall sunflowers. According to its website, McKee-Beshers has 30 acres of sunflowers planted in nine different fields. I think that the sunflowers may have been a little past their prime and appeared to be a little stunted in size, compared to some past years.
It was tricky to figure out what kind of gear to bring on a trek like this. I ended up using my super zoom Canon SX50 to photograph the Indigo Bunting, which was a first sighting for me of this beautiful bird, and my Canon 24-105mm lens on my normal Canon 50D DSLR for the butterfly. I had both of the cameras with me at all times, which gave me a pretty good amount of flexibility. I’ve seen some photographers walk around with two DSLR bodies, but that seems like a lot of weight to carry around, especially when you are moving through vegetation as I was doing as I waded through the rows of sunflowers.
I did take shot shots of the sunflowers and I’ll post some of them eventually. Folks who know me, though, are probably not surprised that my first instinct was to post images of birds and butterflies, rather than ones of the flowers alone.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea alba, Canon 50D, Great Egret, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on August 5, 2017| 2 Comments »
Early yesterday morning at Huntley Meadows Park, the Great Egrets (Ardea alba) were relaxing in the trees, awaiting the start of another beautiful day. When birds are as brilliantly white as egrets, it’s a challenge to get an exposure that retains the details in the feathers. I set the metering on my camera to spot metering and it seems to have worked pretty well. I even like the way that it darkened the background and made the egret stand out even more.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Amphibians, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Anaxyrus fowleri, Canon 50D, Fowler's Toad, Great Falls VA, Potomac River, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm, toad on August 4, 2017| 5 Comments »
As I was walking along the Potomac River one day last month, I came upon this large toad, which I think might be a Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri). I was really struck by the way that the light and shadows helped to emphasize the very bumpy texture of the toad’s skin.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Actitis macularius, Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, sandpiper, spotted sandpiper, Tamron 150-600mm on August 4, 2017| 1 Comment »
Last weekend I spotted a shorebird in the distance while exploring Huntley Meadows Park. It was sharing a log with several turtles. Initially the little bird stayed on the opposite end of the log from the turtles. Gradually the curious and energetic bird moved closer and closer to the turtles. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like the bird came close to pecking one of the legs of a turtle. Perhaps the bird was surprised when the turtle reacted or the turtle made a threatening move, but in any case the bird flew off after the brief encounter.
I was pretty conftdent that the bird was some kind of sandpiper, but I have never seen one with these markings. I posted to a Facebook group and got a quick response. What was the sandpiper I had spotted? It turned out to be a Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Calopteryx maculata, Canon 50D, damselfly mating, Ebony Jewelwing, Ebony Jewelwing damselfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 180mm on August 3, 2017| 2 Comments »
Damselfly mating is, to say the least, unusual and acrobatic. Yes, I felt a little like a voyeur as I observed this pair of Ebony Jewelwing damselflies (Calopteryx maculata) on Monday at Huntley Meadows Park.
Did you notice the sideways heart that their bodies form during this process? Yeah, I am a bit of a romantic, even when it comes to mating insects in the wild. I would recommend, though, that you not try this position at home, but leave it to the professionally trained damselflies. You might otherwise require an unplanned visit to a chiropractor.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Mocha Emerald, Mocha Emerald dragonfly, Somatochlora linearis, Tamron 150-600mm, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on August 2, 2017| 7 Comments »
Do you relax by hanging from a bar in the pull-up position? No, I don’t either, but this Mocha Emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis) chose to do so on Monday when I spotted it at Huntley Meadows Park.
A couple of things really stand out whenever I am lucky enough to spot one of these beautiful dragonflies. Unlike many dragonflies, Mocha Emeralds don’t appear to like direct sunlight—they seem to hang out at small shaded streams, where the shadows and shade make photography difficult. Secondly, they often seem to hang vertically, which emphasizes their extraordinarily long slender bodies. Somehow they remind me of the super skinny young male models that many designers seem to favor, clothing them in garments that those of us with more normal physiques would never ever fit into—unlike those models, we have waists and hips.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on August 1, 2017| 6 Comments »
I was looking high and in the distance and the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) came in low and was almost on top of me before I saw it yesterday morning at Huntley Meadows Park. I had to scramble and pull back on my zoom lens to capture this image, which barely fit into the frame of the viewfinder. (The EXIF data for the shot indicate that it was shot at 309mm of my 150-600mm Tamron telephoto zoom lens.)
I feel like I should have been able to take better advantage of the situation that presented itself, but I am not disappointed. As I have noted repeatedly, any day with a bald eagle is a great day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Bees, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, bee, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, Tamron 180mm on July 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I love to watch bees and spotted this one recently at Green Spring Gardens. I was struck by the way it resembled a mountain climber (albeit with no ropes) as it hung upside-down from this shaggy flower—I have no idea how to effectively gather pollen from a flower like this one, but the bee seemed to be doing ok with its “tongue.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, cardinal flower, Huntley Meadows Park, Lobelia cardinalis, Papilio troilus, Spicebush Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, Tamron 150-600mm on July 31, 2017| 7 Comments »
Cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) are now in bloom at Huntley Meadows Park. In addition to being beautiful, these vivid red flowers attract butterflies, like this Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio troilus) that I spotted this past weekend at the park.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, tagged Alexandria VA, Cabbage White, Cabbage White butterfly, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, Pieris rapae, Tamron 180mm on July 30, 2017| 2 Comments »
Cabbage White butterflies (Pieris rapae) are small and skittish and you probably don’t pay much attention to them—you might even think that they are merely moths. If you look closely, though, you’ll discover that they have beautiful, speckled green eyes.
I love the way that a macro lens reveals amazing details that are there, but that we never see or simply take for granted. I took these photos yesterday during a brief trip to Green Spring Gardens, a wonderful, county-run historic garden not far from where I live.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Archilochus colubris, Canon 50D, hummingbird, Huntley Meadows Park, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Tamron 150-600mm, trumpet vine on July 29, 2017| 3 Comments »
This female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) must have been feeling tired or lazy yesterday afternoon at Huntley Meadows Park. Rather than going in through the opening in the trumpet vine flower and helping to pollinate it, she opted to drill in through the side of the flower to get to the nectar.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, dodder, Huntley Meadows Park, Odocoileus virginianus, Tamron 150-600mm, white-tailed deer on July 29, 2017| 12 Comments »
It looks like a massive amount of fluorescent Silly String has exploded onto parts of the marshland at Huntley Meadows Park, but I believe it is in reality a parasitic plant known as dodder. Early yesterday afternoon a White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) found it to be so tasty that it was willing to ignore the people passing on the boardwalk less than ten feet away.
In taking this photo, I did something that I rarely do—I used the 150mm setting of my 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens. The deer was so close that I could capture only its head and shoulders, even with the lens at its widest setting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on July 28, 2017| 6 Comments »
There is not denying that it is exciting to capture unusual moments, like a snake swallowing a catfish, or to photograph a new species, as I have done recently with dragonflies. For me, though, there is something equally satisfying about returning to a familiar location and observing ordinary subjects. It is a different kind of challenge to present the ordinary in an extraordinary way, in a way that makes people stop and realize that natural beauty surrounds them every single day.
Last week, butterflies were really active at Huntley Meadows Park. When I am in a garden, it is easier for me to guess where a butterfly will fly next, but in the wild, butterfly behavior is a little more unpredictable. When I noticed that a stand of what looks to be some kind of thistle was beginning to open, I hoped that the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that was flying about would be attracted to it. Eventually it flew to the thistle and I was able to capture this image.
Spectacular? No, not really. Beautiful? I’d say so. The image works for me, because it has just enough stopping power to cause views to recall how beautiful ordinary butterflies can be, to rekindle the childhood memories of being excited by butterflies, and to remember how exciting it was abandon caution and simply and joyfully chase after butterflies.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Amphibians, frog, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, frog, Great Falls VA, Potomac River, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on July 27, 2017| 9 Comments »
As I walked along a trail paralleling the Potomac River one morning last week, I noticed some movement near the water’s edge. Moving closer, I spotted some tiny frogs—they seemed to be only about an inch or so in size (25 mm). Many of them hopped away as I continued my approach, but one of them jumped onto a rock and posed for me.
I was able to capture a lot of details of this frog, but am having trouble identifying its species. I have a lot more experience identifying birds and insects—I am not a frogman. Despite my ineptitude at identification, I really like the photo and the way that the background seems to mirror the colors, patterns, and texture of this tiny frog.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Canon 50D, Common Sanddragon, Common Sanddragon dragonfly, Dogue Creek, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Progomphus obscurus, Tamron 180mm on July 26, 2017| 3 Comments »
Sanddragon on the rocks? No, it’s not a tropical summertime drink—it is simply a description of a dragonfly that I saw earlier this month in a somewhat unusual location.
Common Sanddragon dragonflies (Progomphus obscurus) have been one of my favorite dragonfly species from the moment I first encountered them at Huntley Meadows Park a few years ago as I was exploring a remote area of the park. I almost literally stumbled upon them and didn’t really know what species they were at the time. I sent photos off to my local dragonfly expert Walter Sanford and he was able to identify them for me.
Since that time I have learned a lot more about the species, including the fact that they emerge on the sandy banks of streams. (Many other dragonfly nymphs attach themselves to vegetation growing out of the water and leave their discarded exoskeletons attached to the vegetation when they emerge.) Last year I even had the awesome experience of watching the emergence of a Common Sanddragon and documented it in series of images in a blog posting called Metamorphosis of a Dragonfly.
This year I have had an unusually hard time finding Common Sanddragons, because the creeks where I normally find them have had unusually high water levels, leaving all of the sandy areas underwater. Earlier this month while I was exploring Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite locations for finding dragonflies, I decided to check out the creek that runs through the refuge. It is actually part of the same creek where I was used to finding sanddragons, but is further downstream.
I noticed that part of a sandbar was exposed, but I didn’t think that it would be suitable for sanddragons, because it was covered with small rocks. I decided to investigate it anyways and my persistence was rewarded when a male Common Sanddragon flew in and perched on one of the rocks.
Sanddragon on the rocks? It was definitely a refreshing experience for me on a hot summer day. Any ideas on the appropriate ingredients for a cocktail with that name?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Carolina Saddlebags, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Tamron 180mm, Tramea carolina on July 25, 2017| 2 Comments »
What are Carolina Saddlebags? Luggage for horseback or motorcycle riding? No, Carolina Saddlebags (Tramea carolina) are a species of bright red dragonflies with reddish-brown blotches of color on their hindwings. Why aren’t they Carolina Blue in color? Obviously the folks who named the dragonfly were not fans of the University of North Carolina (UNC) basketball team. (According to Wikipedia, the use of the light blue color at UNC dates back to 1795.)
I first became aware of the Carolina Saddlebags yesterday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge when a flash of red caught my eye. A dragonfly was patrolling over a section of the water and the adjacent grassy area. I tracked it visually and eventually realized it was a saddlebags dragonfly—those blotches of color stand out even when the dragonflies are flying. Most of the saddlebags dragonflies that we encounter in our area are Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata), but I was pretty confident that my eyes were seeing the red of the relatively rarer Carolina Saddlebags. I tried to capture some in-flight shots, including the first one below, but eventually lost sight of the dragonfly.
Carolina Saddlebag dragonflies, according to the information on the Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website, are powerful fliers and are one of only a few species that routinely migrate hundreds of miles. Additionally, according to that same website, they rarely perch. As I continued to walk around the small pond of the wildlife refuge, imagine my surprise when I came upon one that was perching.
I didn’t dare approach too closely initially and may well have been holding my breath when I took some preliminary shots. My caution proved to be justified, because the dragonfly flew away when I tried to move forward, even though I was approaching as slowly and as stealthily as I could. Either the dragonfly was skittish or its short rest break was over.
Carolina Saddlebags was not a species that I had seen before at this location and it was not really on my radar. Fortunately I was able to react quickly enough and was lucky enough to get some shots, including the in-flight one as the dragonfly was zooming past me. As I learned in the Boy Scouts, it is always good to be prepared.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Ringtail, Eastern Ringtail dragonfly, Erpetogomphus designatus, Great Falls VA, Potomac River, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on July 24, 2017| 6 Comments »
This past week I was excited to see several Eastern Ringtail dragonflies (Erpetogomphus designatus) while exploring Riverbend Park in Great Falls, Virginia. This species is relatively uncommon in our area and I had only encountered one once before at a location in Maryland. Fellow dragonfly enthusiast and photographer Walter Sanford had alerted me to the presence of these dragonflies at the park and their location, so I was fairly confident that I would be able to find some of them. (With wildlife photography there are few guarantees—you can never be sure how long a species will remain at a given location, particularly when it comes to insects like dragonflies that have a limited season.)
Well, I managed to find some Eastern Ringtails and was faced with the challenge of how to photograph them. The bad news was that this species likes to perch on the ground, but the good news was that the ground on which they chose to perch was uncluttered—it was a boat ramp made of some kind of aggregate concrete. The background of these shots is not natural, but it does allow you to see some of the beautiful details of this stunning dragonfly, especially their spectacular blue eyes.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Flowers, Nature, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Archilochus colubris, Campsis radicans, Canon 50D, hummingbird, Huntley Meadows Park, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Tamron 150-600mm, trumpet vine on July 23, 2017| 2 Comments »
I have known for a while that hummingbirds are attracted to trumpet vines, so I keep my eyes open whenever I pass a stand of them near the observation tower at Huntley Meadows Park. Yesterday morning I finally lucked out and spotted a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) in the midst of the trumpet vines (Campsis radicans) and managed to capture these images, including one in which the hummingbird was resting for a few seconds on a branch before resuming her energetic activity.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, rabbit, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on July 22, 2017| 3 Comments »
I don’t feature rabbits very often on this blog because I don’t see them very often. Actually that is not entirely accurate—I have a rabbit named Prime Rib who appears from time to time, but I don’t count him, because he does not live in wild and instead lives in a cage in my living room.
At Huntley Meadows Park, where I do a lot of my wildlife photography, I rarely see rabbits. Perhaps the marshy and wooded habitat is less than ideal for the rabbits or perhaps the hawks are brutally efficient at keeping their numbers low. During some recent visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which has more open grassy areas, I’ve spotted numerous rabbits and decided to feature a couple of them today.
In a recent posting, I expressed my concern about possibly oversaturating my readers with dragonfly photos. In an exchange of comments, a faithful reader, Dan Antion, shared similar concerns about his photos of rabbits and squirrels and I warned him that I was going venture into his niche and post some rabbit photos. Dan is one of my favorite bloggers and I encourage everyone to check out his blog No Facilities for his humorous and insightful looks at the joys and frustrations of everyday life as well as some great photos, including images of the aforementioned squirrels and rabbits and his faithful dog Maddie.
This one is for you, Dan.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Great Falls VA, Papilio glaucus, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on July 21, 2017| 7 Comments »
When the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) that I was chasing at Riverbend Park flew into some vegetation, I thought that I had lost it. Suddenly and almost magically the butterfly’s shadow was revealed on a large leaf as it moved about. I was thrilled to be able to capture the swallowtail shadow as well as a small portion of the butterfly itself.
It’s usually best to shoot with the sun at your back, but it worked out well in this case for me to violate that “rule.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Fish, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, catfish, Great Falls VA, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, Potomac River, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on July 20, 2017| 20 Comments »
It may appear to be the Loch Ness monster, but I am pretty sure that it is “only” a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon). I stumbled upon it yesterday while exploring Riverbend Park in Great Falls, Virginia just after it had caught a pretty good-sized catfish. It took a while to subdue the fish, but the snake eventually was able to swallow it.
I have seen snakes like this catch small fish before, but I was shocked to see the size of its catch this time. How does a snake subdue and immobilize a fish that big? Northern Water Snakes are not poisonous, though I have been told that their bite can be quite painful and that the snake injects an anti-coagulant into your system, so that you will bleed a lot. The snake swam around with the fish for quite some time, periodically rearing its head and part of its body out of the water. The snake’s mouth seemed to have a literal death grip on the fish.
I watched the action with a mixture of horror and fascination, frozen in place to avoid spooking the snake. The snake seemed to be adjusting the position of the fish, as I had seen herons do, and I wondered how it could possibly swallow the fish. Suddenly there was a lot of movement in the water, the snake’s body started to writhe, and the fish simply disappeared, except for a small piece of the tail still sticking out of the fish’s mouth.
I still don’t know exactly how the snake ingested the fish—one minute it was then and then in a blink of an eye it wasn’t. It seemed like some kind of magical legerdemain (which is probably the wrong term for a limbless creature), though I suspect that the snake has powerful muscles that enabled it to pull in the fish all at once.
There are signs in Riverbend Park warning folks not to swim in the Potomac River, probably because of the current. I think that I have found another reason to stay out of the water.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on July 19, 2017| 4 Comments »
Green Herons (Butorides virescens) have so much personality packed into their small bodies. This one almost seemed to be smiling as it flew by me last weekend at Huntley Meadows Park. Perhaps it was just my imagination running away with me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on July 18, 2017| 10 Comments »
For wildlife photographers, I would argue, a successful image is most often the result of some combination of luck, skill, and equipment. We inhabit a world of tremendous uncertainty and have to be hypervigilant, never knowing when “the moment” will arrive when we will be forced to make a series of split-second decisions.
One of those moments arrived for me yesterday as I was exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge, Virginia. Although I was quite aware that there were bald eagles in the area, because some of the trails in the refuge near eagle nesting sites were closed, I was primarily chasing dragonflies and butterflies, so I had my 180mm macro lens mounted on my camera. I knew that I would be doing a lot of walking, so in order to minimize weight, I was not carrying my trusty (and heavy) 150-600mm zoom lens.
I was following a trail that ran parallel to the waters of Occoquan Bay and was a little frustrated that the view was frequently obstructed by heavy vegetation. When I reached an opening in the vegetation I looked out at the water and suddenly a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) burst into view out of nowhere. The eagle was almost at eye level and seemed to be struggling a little to gain altitude. As I later was able to ascertain, it had just caught a fish.
The logical part of my brain might have told me that a 180mm lens is not long enough to capture an image of an eagle in flight, but think I was acting on an instinctive level at that moment and I was able to snap off some shots before the eagle disappeared out of sight. It took a while for the adrenaline to wear off and I didn’t know for sure if I had been able to capture the moment. It was only when I reviewed the images on my computer that I realized that I had gotten my best eagle shots ever.
As is the case with most of my bird images, I cropped the first image to bring the subject in a bit closer. However, I am also including an uncropped version of the same image. It boggles my mind to think that I filled up that much of the frame with an eagle in flight with a 180mm lens.
Luck was hugely important; skill played a role, though it was my quick reaction time that was critical; and equipment turned out to be less important that I would have anticipated.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 