August is usually a tough time of year for local wildlife photography. The little birds are pretty much grown, the vegetation is thick, and the mosquitos are looking for blood! So there are days that I am a little short on motivation to get up early and drive somewhere just to be abused by the insect population. But it’s also true that if you don’t get your lazy butt outta bed your chances of success fall rather rapidly.
Brick Pond would be the logical choice for a local outing except this year you might as well forget about BP. They had to draw down the water level to make repairs on the water control system and it now looks like a big grassy field. There may be a few birds there but I’m guessing they are few and far between and they’ll be very hard to get a good shot. So my next local go to is Apalachin Marsh. Usually you are wading through standing water at the marsh but with this year being pretty dry you can get around the marsh without getting your feet wet. Except where you cross under the highway, which has a few inches of water in it.
I really thought I would just be out for a glorified walk, but I always take a camera because you never know. It was a beautiful, quiet morning with some pretty heavy fog covering the marsh. I walked the trail to the blind to see if there was anything on what was left of the pond there. I peeked over the top and there was a duck staring back at me, but not the kind of duck I was expecting!
I want the birders to let me know for sure, but this looks like a male Ringneck Duck to me! Which is odd, because they are usually gone early in the spring. They breed in Canada and they usually use our area as a resting spot on the way up north. Below is a pic I took this spring at Brick Pond when they were in breeding plumage.
There are only a few smallish spots of open water at the marsh, although this can be an advantage for photographers. The lack of open water concentrates the birds into a smaller area which increases your chances of seeing them. At least that’s how it is supposed to go!
The rest of the images are nothing special species wise or quality wise, but they are important to me. They are the reason I wake up early to do this……
perfect camouflage…
Busted!!!! I’m getting the evil eye from Mom!
Mama’s little baby! The markings tell me this is a juvenile wood duck..
The Mayor of the Marsh…..
I don’t know what this is either, but I liked the composition…