With all the rain, fog, and wildfire smoke it’s been very difficult to be a wildlife photographer lately! The farther the distance that you shoot in the fog, the more difficult it becomes to get a sharp picture. Add in the wildfire smoke and you have the recipe for fuzzy pics. Below is a pic I took about half an hour after sunrise last week. Normally by then I would have blinded myself looking into the Sun but today it was a very eerie sky.
If only a GBH was sitting on a branch…. what a composition that would be!
This morning was a bit better, as I was trying to keep my shots as close as possible to minimize the effect of the fog. The GBH’s are all flying now, with only one nest being used occasionally as a gathering place for food. The parents are trying to encourage the young herons to find their own food. Many of the birds have already dispersed to other wetlands in the general area and there are only 5 or 6 left from the original 40 birds in the beginning. These two birds below got along fairly well when they were nest mates but now that they are flying they seem to get testy with each other. And the light was right for a high key image so I fortunately got one that turned out okay. Click to enlarge images…
Best friends…..
Yin and Yang…. a candidate for the “negative space” competition?
The Wood ducks are growing up too. It won’t be long before they are zooming all over the pond, but for now they just swim in for breakfast and then find a comfortable log to take a nap on.
Nice of him to give me an interesting background….
This time of year you also begin to see the different markings of the male and female coming out.
Look at the markings on the head…..
I was also fortunate enough to see a Spotted Sandpiper. Unfortunately the Sandpiper was on the same log as an adult female Wood duck. The Sandpiper wanted to walk by the duck on the log but she wasn’t having any of it! She just gave him a look and the Sandpiper was wise enough not to push the issue!
Finally the female Wood duck had the log all to herself. Wood ducks are moody birds. They can be so bitchy sometimes and at other times they will sit next to each other and groom each other. Go figure.
By this time the Sun was brutal and it was getting hot. The mosquitos had already had they way with me earlier, so I went to find a cup of coffee and nurse my wounds. All for now, thanks for looking! Get out and shoot!!!
